a^JJ K 2,5" 
Book Q 



A 




RUSSIAN'S EE PLY 

TO THE 

MARQUIS BE CUSTINE'S 

" RUSSIA IN 1839." 

H^&UsVu V\f>a.v er\£ Uic-V^ ©ft vv* A *l 

" Absentem qui rodit amicum, 
Qui non defendit, alio culpante ; solutos dicacis ; 
Qui capta risus hominum famamque 
Fingere qui non visa potesti, commissa tacere 
Qui nequit ; hie niger est: hunc tu, Romane caveto." 

Horace 

EDITED BY 

HENRY J. BRADFIELD, ESQ., 

AUTHOR OF 

"Tales of the Cyclades," "Memoir of General Dundas," &c- 



LONDON: 




T. C. NEWBY, PUBLISHER, 

65, MORTIMER ST., CAVENDISH SQUARE. 

1844. 




XEVBY, PRINTER, MORTIMER STREET. 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 

THE EARL OF ABERDEEN, 

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 
THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED, 
BY 

HIS lordship's 

VERY OBEDIENT 

HUMBLE SERVANT, 

THE EDITOR, 



PREFACE. 



A work has lately obtained much celebrity, 
entitled " Russia and the Russians in 1839," by 
the Marquis de Custine. From the excitement 
which it has produced, like others, I was induced 
to read it. I have done so attentively. Amid 
good and evil report it has acquired this general 
reputation, that of being anything but an impar- 
tial history of that country and its people. This, 
however, is accounted for by the Marquis himself, 
who, in his preface, distinctly informs us that 
" a sentiment which has never ceased to influence 
my heart is, a love of France, which renders me 
severe in my judgment upon foreigners* 39 



VI 



PREFACE. 



This love of country is, we presume, paramount 
in every honorable and patriotic mind ; but does 
it follow that, in the exercise of it, we should 
commit wrong and injustice? or that every 
consideration for the well-being and patriotism of 
others, should be sacrificed to this one selfish 
principle ? 

Narratives of travel, or the history of a 
country, are supposed to be prompted by a laud- 
able impulse, that of improving ourselves in a 
knowledge of the world, its morals, and in the 
philosophy of human nature, whereby impressions 
may be formed and imparted to others, conducive 
to the well-being of mankind. With this laud- 
able design, it would appear, the Marquis has 
been by no means actuated or influenced, as the 
whole work, from beginning to end, forms but 
one sweeping tirade against Russia and the 
Russians. 

There is a noble ethical maxim of Claudian the 
Latin poet, "do not consider what you may do, but 
what will become you to have done ; let the sense 



PREFACE. 



of honor subdue your mind." We could have 
wished our author had been imbued with a por- 
tion of this generous spirit. 

In his wanderings through Russia, M. de 
Custine notes down, with the precision of an 
Homeric messenger, all the great and little ills 
which mortal flesh is heir to in that country, 
imparting to the reader his biassed opinions 
thereon, without one redeeming quality, or even 
a wish expressive of amelioration. 

Equally indifferent, from the monarch to the 
peasant, or the man of exalted rank or genius, 
down to the commonest feldjager, his sarcasm 
and vituperation serve only to amuse his venal 
appetite, forgetful of the proverb : 

" Great men may jest with saints, 'tis wit therein, 
But with the less, foul profanation." 

We cannot adduce a stronger instance of wilful 
and even libellous exaggeration, contained in M. 
de Custine's work, than in giving the following 



viii 



PREFACE. 



quotation from a distinguished morning paper, in 
reference to the case of the unfortunate Prince 
Troubetzkoi. 

" M. Gretsch, a Russian gentleman, at present 
residing in Dresden, is publishing a series of 
letters, in which he shows, from official documents 
and other unquestionable authorities, how liberally 
M. de Custine has drawn upon his imagination 
for what he has had the assurance to put forth as 
facts. One of the statements of the writer, which 
excited the most indignation against the Emperor 
of Russia, was, that the Prince Troubetzkoi and 
his associate, who had been banished to Siberia 
for conspiracy to assassinate his majesty, were 
treated in the most cruel and barbarous manner, 
and that their wives and children, who had fol- 
lowed them in their captivity, were also the 
victims of brutal oppression. Now listen to the 
real truth, as described by M. Gretsch: — 

" 'M. de Custine/ says he, ' recounts, after his 
own manner, the history of the Prince Trou- 
betzkoi. We advise our readers to consult the 



PREFACE. 



Actes du Proces, which are in the Annuaire 
Historique of Lesur, of the years 1825 and 1826. 
They will find that the Prince Troubetzko'i was 
the life and soul, and one of the principal authors, 
of that infamous and extravagant conspiracy, the 
object of which was nothing less than the exter- 
mination of the imperial family, the overthrow of 
the established government, and the foundation 
of a republic ; in other terms, complete anarchy 
and ruin of the empire. When the time to act 
was arrived, the conspirators put themselves en 
marche, after having first excited some troops of 
the line to revolt by false and deceitful suggestions, 
but they were soon dispersed and seized, thanks to 
the prompt and decisive measures of the Emperor, 
who exposed his life several times to the most im- 
minent hazard. The Prince Troubetzko'i, the 
previous evening, had arranged with his co-con- 
spirators the whole plan of the movement; but 
when the time came his courage failed, and he 
hid himself in the house of his brother-in-law, 
Comte Lebzeltem, the ambassador of Austria. He 
a 5 



X 



PREFACE. 



was tried by the tribunals, placed in the second 
category of the guilty, and condemned to death. 
The Emperor commuted the penalty of death to 
perpetual labour in the mines; subsequently, this 
period of punishment was reduced to twenty 
years, then to fifteen. At the expiration of the 
fifteen years, residence was assigned him in 
Siberia. His wife, born Countess Laval, followed 
him to each. On this point the Marquis de Cus- 
tine asserts that it was fear of the aristocracy 
that induced the Emperor to allow the wife to join 
her husband. Nothing is more false. The go- 
vernment permits all married women to follow 
their husbands to Siberia, under the condition 
that they will remain there, and that the children 
born to them by a man degraded from the nobility, 
shall belong to the same rank as their father, ac- 
cording to the principles universally recognised 
by the law. Some women take advantage of this 
permission. The government throws no obstacle 
whatever in the way of their joining their hus- 
bands in Siberia, not even to ladies who may be 



PREFACE. 



XL 



desirous to espouse exiles after their banishment. 
It would be wrong to figure to oneself, however, 
that the situation of these exiles (Prince Trou- 
betzkoi and his fellows) is similar to that of the 
convicts of Toulon and Brest, or to those con- 
demned to the mines of Nertchinsk. The sove- 
reign may be forced to condemn them to a 
rigorous punishment; but the father of his people, 
in his bounty, softens their fate as much as 
possible. The mine of Petrovski, situated at a 
distance of four hundred and eighty-four wersts 
from Irkutzk, was assigned as their place of 
residence, and a generous and humane man, 
General Lessarski, was appointed their overseer. 
The malheureux, as all exiles are called in Siberia, 
were not condemned to rude labour. They were 
conducted to labour merely as a matter of form : 
being compelled to sweep paths, plant trees, water 
flowers, &c. Their wives could correspond with 
their relations, and receive from them all of which 
they have need — even pianos. Judge then, I 
pray you, if Prince Troubetzkoi had asked for a 



xii 



PREFACE. 



chest of medicine, it would have been refused, as 
M. de Custine alleges, M, de Custine, by the 
way, asserts that exiles may receive provisions, but 
not money — provisions from a distance of 6000 
wersts, 1500 leagues ! When the condemned 
had completed their terms of travaux forces, pro- 
perly so called, they were established in different 
cantons in the middle and southern parts of 
Siberia. All those among them who had common 
sense and strength of character reconciled them- 
selves to their situation ; they became as colonists, 
built houses, and live, as I am informed, a tran- 
quil and easy life, provisions and all necessary 
articles of eating next to nothing in Siberia. 
Some of these exiles have with them a mother 
and sisters. Such is a specimen of the cruel 
treatment to which they have been subjected, for 
having put in danger the life of their sovereign, 
and for having endeavoured to plunge their coun- 
try into incalculable calamities ! Compare it with 
the treatment of Mallet in 1812, of the patriots 
in 1816, and of Thistlewood and his aolytes in 
England ! 



PREFACE. 



xiii 



As to the refusal of the prayers said to have 
been preferred to the Emperor by the Princess 
Tronbetzkoi, I have written to St. Petersbourg 
for information, and have received a letter from a 
well-informed source, which sets forth, that " the 
wife of the criminal of state, the serf Tronbetzkoi, 
has never solicited permission to have her children 
sent from Siberia to be educated. On the mar- 
riage of the hereditary Grand Duke, the Emperor 
issued an order to admit all the children of crimi- 
nals of state to the different scholastic establish- 
ments of the crown, to the children of Troubetz- 
ko'i among the rest ; but he (Troubetzko'i) 
declared that he would not accept the favor that 
was offered to him, because the pain of being 
separated from her infants would cost his wife 
her life ! And this unexampled grace was offered 
to a criminal who, in any other country in Europe, 
would assuredly have been hanged, and who in 
gratitude that his life was spared, dragged himself 
on his knees to the monarch whom the Marquis 
de Custine vilifies !' " 



Xiv PREFACE. 

After the perusal of this extract, we will beg 
of the Marquis to turn his eyes towards his own 
country, and inform us in what manner did the 
monarch dispose of the criminals, who have so 
often conspired against his life? Crime is the 
same in all countries, whether in the prince or 
the peasant, with this difference, that the greater 
degree of criminality attaches to him in the more 
exalted station. 

On the subject of the advancement of educa- 
tion and civilization in Russia, there is a very 
interesting passage in the Quarterly Review for 
March, 1827 ; it runs thus : — 

" A Russian of high rank, being present at a 
conversation in England, which turned upon the 
unceremonious manner in which they get rid of 
an obnoxious autocrat in Russia, is said to have 
sotto voce observed : ' It is very natural for you to 
disapprove of it, but we consider it our Magna 
Charta' " Russia has shown, indeed, that she has 
no wish, like the two great Mohamedan states, 
Turkey and Persia, to keep her subjects in a 



PREFACE. 



XV 



state of hopeless slavery and stupid ignorance; 
she is, on the contrary, proceeding with a rapidity 
that could hardly be expected, to alleviate, with 
a view of abolishing the one, and with a liberality 
almost unexampled, to afford the means of 
enlightening the other, by the endowing of free 
schools for the children of the poorer citizens and 
the military, in every city and town throughout 
the empire : while excellent seminaries, for the 
higher classes, in which the superior branches of 
education may be had at a trifling expense, are 
also to be found everywhere encouraged and pro- 
tected by the government. 

We find the unfortunate Prince Troubetzkoi 
was the chief in a conspiracy, the object of which 
was, to murder the whole of the royal family, 
overthrow the government, and establish a demo- 
cracy, for which perfidious crime he was con- 
demned to death ; but which extreme penalty, 
through the clemency of the Emperor, was 
commuted to banishment. In no measured terms, 
however, M. de Custine undertakes his defence, 



xvi 



PREFACE. 



totally forgetful that in his very first volume he 
thus expresses himself : — 

" Aristocrat both from character and conviction, 
I feel that the aristocracy alone can resist either 
the seductions or abuses of absolute power. 
Without an aristocracy there would be nothing 
but tyranny, both in monarchies and in democra- 
cies/ 5 

Again: "in Germany the people, despotically 
governed, appeared to me the happiest on earth ; 
a despotism thus mitigated by the mildness of 
of its customs, caused me to think that despotism 
was not after all so detestable a thing as our 
philosophers had pretended." 

Thus much for the consistency of the Marquis, 
reminding us very much of a similar change in 
the character of Robespierre. It is not generally 
known, that that tyrant and demagogue, previous 
to the revolution, had actually written an "Essay 
on Morality^ and for which the prize was 
awarded him ! Such, however, is the fact. The 
essay was found in the archives of Metz in 1839. 



PEEFACE. 



xvii 



It is signed, " Robespierre, advocate of the parlia- 
ment, residing at Arras." 

It would appear from the above extracts, that 
"a change came over the spirit of his dream" in 
the Marquis also. 

With regard to Russia itself, what traveller, 
after the perusal of M. de Custine's work, and 
having visited Rome, Florence, Italy, Greece, &c, 
would feel disposed to visit that country from the 
unenviable description he affords us ? In my 
travels, however, I have met Russians in many 
lands, and have invariably found them polite, 
intelligent, and agreeable. One in particular 
struck me, in a rail-road excursion from Liverpool 
to London, &c. He was an officer of engineers, 
travelling by order of the Emperor through- 
out Europe, and on the present occasion was 
making a tour of inspection, throughout our 
manufacturing districts, observing the con- 
struction of our rail-roads, &c. I found him a 
perfect classical scholar, and he spoke modern 
Greek, Italian, French, German, and English— 



xviii 



PREFACE. 



the latter language especially — with a remarkable 
degree of fluency and Anglo-pronunciation ; in 
his conversation he was most agreeable; his 
manners were those of a courtier, while his hand- 
some intellectual and noble features would form a 
model for the sculptor; in fact, he was one whom 
a Desdemona could have wished that 

" Heaven had made her such a man." 

Herein I am merely paying a passing tribute 
to an individual, whom chance threw in my way ; 
but were I to act up to the Marquis, in his spirit 
of generality, I should from this specimen of the 
genus " homo" write down in my note book thus : 
" the whole Russian race are the handsomest and 
most intellectual looking men in the world!" 
thereby excite the jealousy of our English " preux 
cavaliers," while our fair country-women would 
probably commence a rapid migration to the 
North. 

"To please ourselves or friends is too easily 



PREFACE. 



xix 



effected ; but to please those who have antipathies 
against us is almost impossible," and this is the 
unfortunate position of the Russians, with the 
Marquis de Custine. Go where he will, he sees 
but their errors, and the despotic tyranny under 
which they apparently labour. 

Suppose, in character with the Marquis, we 
were to turn over but one page of the history of 
current events in our own country. An enlight- 
ened friend has now placed before me two 
examples; the one is the case of the highly- 
esteemed but unfortunate banker, Mr. Chambers, 
who, in the very heart of this " proudest metro- 
polis" of philanthropy and civilization in the 
world, has been incarcerated in the Queen's 
Bench prison for a period of seventeen long 
torturing years ; and, my God, for what crime ? 
His estate has during that period produced the 
enormous sum of £200,000 wherewith to pay 
his creditors, not one of whom, however, from 
some " dark hidden mystery," have received one 
farthing ! This instance of profligate iniquity 



XX 



PREFACE. 



and heartless oppression is quoted from the 
" Times" paper — a journal circulated throughout 
the civilized world, and what will the world say 
to it? 

The other case is taken from the Aylesbury 
News of February 10th, 1844, and runs thus 
under the head of " Agricultural Tyranny :" — 

"A baker of Ickford gave offence to some 
farmers of Oakley and Shaffington, and to punish 
the baker for daring to act for himself, these 
tyrants have given their labourers notice, that 
unless they discontinue dealing with him, they 
(the labourers) are to be discharged from 
their employment. Some of the poor labourers 
have dealt with this baker for years, and are 
anxious to continue to do so. Even a shopkeeper 
of Oakley, who retails bread for the baker, has 
been notified, that if he continues to do so, no 
labourers who deal with him will be employed on 
the farms. Some of the labourers who did not 
obey their employers' injunctions and immediately 
leave the baker, have been discharged." 



PREFACE. Xxi 

Here is an act of cruelty and petty tyranny, on 
the part of individuals who call themselves 
" gentlemen" farmers, towards their industrious 
labourers ; and yet the parties guilty of these 
instances of oppressive wrong, in this our vaunted 
"land of liberty," escape punishment. It is 
well for them they are not in Russia, for we 
presume our friend the Marquis would say : the 
criminals in the one case would be condemned to 
the horrors and mines of Siberia, while in the 
other they would probably come under the judi- 
cial application of the knout, and very deservedly 
so. Now, turn we to France. 

Independent of her savoury dishes of fricas- 
seed frogs, &c, and the tortures to which those 
unfortunate devils of geese are subject, in order 
to produce that devout consummation of the 
maitre d'hotel, "pate de foie gras," Laurence 
Sterne in his " Sentimental Journey" has the 
following passage : — 

"Had I died that night of indigestion, the 
whole world could not have suspended the effects 



xxii 



PREFACE. 



of the droits d'Aubaine ;* ray shirts, and black 
pair of silk breeches, portmanteau and all, must 
have gone to the king of France ; even the little 
picture which I have so long worn, and so often 
have told thee, Eliza, I would carry with me to 
my grave, would have been torn from my neck. 
Ungenerous to seize upon the wreck of an unwary 
passenger, whom your subjects have beckoned to 
the coast — by heaven ! Sire, it is not well done ; 
and much does it grieve me, 'tis the monarch of 
a people so civilized and courteous, and so re- 
nowned for sentiment and fine feeling, that I 

have no reason with" 

Previous to commencing his travels, or even 
the publication of them, we could have wished the 
Marquis de Custine had perused that beautiful 
and sentimental work of our distinguished coun- 
tryman ; it would have imbued him with more 

* Such was the law ; all the effects of strangers, (Swiss 
and Scots excepted) dying in France, were seized by virtue 
of this law, though the heir be upon the spot ; the 
profit of these contingencies being farmed, there was no 
redress. 



PREFACE. 



xxiii 



benevolent feelings, and have served as an excel- 
lent model for his own production. 

These illustrations or quotations will serve to 
show, that were I evilly disposed, or possessed 
the invidious quality of criticizing nations and 
people, from one or two solitary instances of defect 
in the laws, or individual tyranny, we should one 
and all appear in no very agreeable light, either 
as to morals or civilization. 

M. de Custine, in his unworthy remarks on 
St. Peter sbourg in general, reminds us forcibly of 
a certain Englishman, who having heard much of 
Rome and its famous Cathedral of St. Peter's, 
resolved on visiting the "eternal city" for that 
purpose; but who, on his arrival there, and on 
being shown that magnificent edifice, so enthusi- 
astically and beautifully described by Byron, he 
coolly exclaimed : " Is that all V 3 and returned to 
his hotel, there to satiate his appetite by a break- 
fast of broiled ham and eggs. 

It is not my intention here to enter into a 
discussion as to the politics or policy of the 



Xxiv PREFACE. 

Emperor of Russia, or his ministers ; I leave this 
to more experienced logicians than myself. My 
object is merely to expose to the British public the 
unjust opinions and imputations cast upon the 
Russian nation in general, for may it not probably 
be our turn to-morrow, to receive a similar com- 
plimentary visit from this illustrious historian, 
moralist, and philosopher ? 

Junius has observed: "There is a contention 
in which everything may be lost and nothing 
gained." M. de Custine, in his phalanx of hostile 
invective, and sentiments towards Russia and the 
Russians, has placed himself in this unenviable 
position ; he has lost the good opinion of all 
candid, honorable, and upright minds ; while he 
may lay this flattering unction to his soul, and 
rest assured that the publication of his work 
has served only to gain for him the honest 
indignation of every lover of his country, or 
patriotic Russian. 

THE EDITOR. 



REPLY TO M. DE CUSTINE. 



CHAPTER I. 

Public opinion is subject to extraordinary 
reaction. It is the same with nations as with 
individuals : they enjoy their moments of favor 
and disgrace. Like a changeful and capricious 
beam — one moment popularity overwhelms its 
idol with favor, and in another, as suddenly 
abandons it. We may say with Napoleon, who, 
when one of his marshals complimented him on 
the enthusiastic acclamations of the people, 
whispered him, " yes, marshal, they would make 
the same noise to-morrow, were I led to the 
scaffold." Popular reaction never stops half way, 

B 



% REPLY TO THE 

and its disappointed vanity vents itself in the 
ebullitions of revenge, in proportion as it has 
become the dupe of its own extravagant folly; 
while, instead of self-correction, it casts down the 
idol which it had itself raised, and not content 
with abandoning it, tramples it beneath its feet. 
Thus it has been with Russia and the Russians. 
Times have changed ! I will not allude to the 
period when Voltaire, with a warmth of enthu- 
siasm, exclaimed : 

" C'est du Nord aujourdhui que nous vient la lumiere !" 

The compliment was beyond our deserts; we 
therefore appreciate it according to its real merits. 
But without going so far back — in 1815, of all 
the people whom a marvellous destiny preserved, 
were we not, (I will not say the most favored) 
but certainly the equally exalted ? Beranger 
reproaches Fretillon for his partiality to the 
Cossacks. To-day, it is otherwise ; Fretillon 
would now scarcely notice us, fearful of com- 
promising himself with the " Journal des Debats;'' 



MARQUIS DE CXJSTINE. 3 

while in the theatres, and French romances of 
the day, we are now held up to ridicule ! The 
melo-drama has appropriated to itself our Monjiks 
and Boyards, and the English have given place 
to us in their Vaudevilles. 

In their chambers there is not an orator, but 
who, once or twice during the sessions, wins 
public and ministerial popularity at our expense, 
while the journals are unanimous in denouncing 
our ambitious designs and thirst of conquest. 
What are the facts ? That we have quietly 
allowed France to extend her conquests in Africa, 
and push her maritime establishments as far as 
the Polynesian islands ! Nor did we interfere 
with the English in their attack on China, their 
demanding tribute, and annexing Scinde to their 
colossal empire in India ! All this time we have 
remained passive. The " Colossus of the North," 
however, cannot sneeze, but all Europe must have 
her telescopic eye upon us ! It is in virtue of 
this historical apophthegm, that an irresistible 
instinct draws the people of the north towards 
b 2 



4 REPLY TO THE 

the more genial south, and the arts of civilized 
Europe ; while from the very dawn of day, the 
sentinels of the European press, from their watch 
towers announce, with a nourish of trumpets, the 
anticipated approach of the modern Attila, with 
his myriads of Huns ! In truth, it would appear 
that we Russians are endowed with a most 
remarkable spirit of ubiquity, and most profound 
views ! Russia is at the bottom of every com- 
motion, and manifested in a thousand places ! 
Is there a disturbance in Paris, or a rising in 
Ireland ? if Russia is not the cause, she has her 
allotted share in it. Russia is in secret corres- 
pondence with O'Connell and Ab-del-Kader. 
Russia seeks to create dissension among the 
Catholic and Protestant missionaries in the 
Marquesas. Russia furnished the plan of cam- 
paign to Akbar Khan and the Beloochees, across 
the mountain barriers of Mongolia, and the great 
desert of Kobi ? While to the Chinese, she with 
the same facility of transport sent cannon on the 
backs of hippogriffs ! Like a polypus with a 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 5 

thousand feet, she everywhere extends the snares 
of her political espionage. Our high-born dames 
and fascinating beauties are everywhere looked 
upon as so many politicians in petticoats ! While 
the sums of money which they happen to expend 
among the Parisian modistes are of course 
furnished from the pockets of his imperial 
majesty ! In fact, to such an extent is this 
ridiculous and contemptible suspicion carried, 
that a Russian cannot avail himself the pleasure 
of an innocent trip to Aix-la-Chapelle or Baden, 
for health or recreation, but he is looked upon as 
a spy, sent to watch or win over the good-hearted 
Germans ! Since the world must have something 
wherewith to amuse itself, so be it ! Every 
nation has its folly — every age its puppet — so 
we will say with the French, " vive la bagatelle !" 

There is one redeeming quality in us, however ; 
we are deemed innoxious and innocent as regards 
intrigues with popery, Rome, or the "beast of 
the Apocalypse \" While Catholicism and Spain 
have with us become dead subjects, so the 



6 



REPLY TO THE 



Calnracs and Siberia bave become worn out with 
the French. Probably with a little patience all 
this commotion will end in our being again the 
"best people under the sun," nous verrons. 

It may be, however, that all this tirade against 
us is not seriously meant, although it may appear 
so ; nor is it proved that the witty writers, who 
thus favor us periodically with their hallucinations, 
themselves believe a word they write. And it 
may be, that although they keep up this "running 
fire" — this love of denunciation — it arises more 
from habit or custom, than from a real spirit of 
hatred in their hearts — at least, we hope so; 
although such feelings may influence the charita- 
ble public, who so willingly lend an ear to such 
rhapsodies. 

"We have here, however, an author, assuming 
the character of a grave philosopher, penetrated 
with the fullest conviction of our enormities, and 
who professes, in imitation of the English 
Johnson, to "hate sincerely." He is one of those 
beings who, from a conviction of his own supe- 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 7 

riority above the generality of mankind, takes 
unto himself the "baton of office/' and to heal 
as "priestlings or tyros" those whom we had 
hitherto been taught by the world to look up to 
as men of exalted character. According to him, 
travellers who have preceded him in Russia have 
looked upon us as " spoiled children while it 
would appear, as far as his travels are concerned, 
M. de Custine has done little more than glance 
over the proofs of his own book. Be this as it 
may with this " pontiff of truth" and slave to a 
faction, he has taken upon himself the mission 
(and who in the present day has not one?) of 
undeceiving his contemporaries. With this view 
he has published four volumes, on superfine 
paper, in which he has as diligently repeated four 
times, the same things over again, in order the 
more effectually to impress them on the minds of 
his readers. Such is his profound disgust of us, 
that for the misfortune of his having breathed the 
infectious atmosphere of the Russian empire, he 
has in a moment, and in one fell sweep, changed 



8 



REPLY TO THE 



his opinions entertained of us, during the whole 
period of his previous existence. The hairs, as 
it were, of his intellectual faculties have become 
grey with age ; while his unfortunate brain seems 
to have undergone a miraculous transfiguration. 
He came among us to search for arguments in 
support of absolute monarchy, and he returns 
gorged with constitutional opinions. Thanks to 
us, however, in point of liberalism, M. de Custine 
may say with the poet Erancalen : 

" Cet esprit dans ma tete un beau jour se trouva 
Et j' avois cinquante ans, quand cela m'arriva." 

Ungrateful liberals ! we compliment you on 
this important conquest ! 

" Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabo" — 

is M. de Custine's meaning in commencing his 
work. He shall have his say of the Russians — a 
people covered with " foul ulcers" and " strutting 
on their own dunghill," who from "the depth of 
their degradation presume to dictate to Europe." 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 9 

M. de Custine has kept his word; we will now 
keep ours. From the days of the Abbe Chappe 
to his renowned self, (including Clarke, Masson, 
and Lyall) never has so disdainful a censor 
trampled upon our devoted heads ! We are 
knaves, liars, flatterers, boasters, vile slaves, 
happy in our chains, vaunting our hospitality (of 
which he so generously partook) apes without 
invention, spies even for the very love of espi- 
onage, without the wish for retribution, &c. &c." 
These are the encomiums and panegyrics which 
our hospitality receives at his pen — an abridged 
catalogue of our perfections and civil virtues. Of 
a truth, Marquis, we thank you right honorably 
and honestly for your courteous civility! but 
while we peruse your admirable work, we are 
forcibly reminded of the "gentleman of the 
rock.'' 

To contradict M. de Cystine's assertions would 
be useless ; to give the lie to them is bad taste ; 
besides it proves nothing. If, for example, we 
are thought dull, we do not prove the contrary by 
b 5 



10 



REPLY TO THE 



imagining ourselves agreeable; hence, therefore, 
if we are pleased or disposed to consider M. de 
Custine false in his opinions and assertions, we 
will not appeal to him, but to the public for a 
reply. We will therefore, circumstances con- 
sidered, allow him to have his say, while the best 
means of demonstrating whether he has judged 
of us erroneously or not, will be to shew in what 
manner he does so. 

M. de Custine's method of going to work 
is simplicity itself, and reminds us of the merry 
Englishman, who, on his arrival in France, was 
waited on by the servant of the hotel, who he 
remarked had red hair, from which circumstance 
he pertinently inferred that red hair was a com- 
mon characteristic of servants throughout the 
country, and booked the facts accordingly. Thus 
M. de Custine forms his opinion of the Rus- 
sians, as if one solitary soldier was the type of a 
whole regiment. 

In virtue of this sage axiom, he unceremo- 
niously metamorphoses every trifling incident, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. II 

every isolated peculiarity which strikes him ; and 
thus unhesitatingly draws his conclusions of the 
many, from a solitary instance, or the manners 
and customs of a whole nation from what he 
perceives in one individual ! 

The passion for generalities is one of the follies 
of the age. There is not an insignificant scribbler 
in France, who does not quote or filch from 
Montesquieu, and who with half-a-dozen facts 
thus pilfered, and despoiled of the thousand and 
one circumstances connected therewith, (the effect 
of which is to annul them), may not reduce into 
algebraical form the history and manners of a 
nation. If, for instance, your argument be of a 
flimsy or superficial character, be verbose, and you 
will be profound in proportion. This experiment 
on the part of our author will infallibly succeed 
with people of ordinary minds ; and it is the know- 
ledge of this which induces M. de Custine to trifle 
as it were with the minds of his readers. He is 
the Csesar of philosophical travellers; he came, he 
saw, and judged. He passes by, and the glitter- 



12 



REPLY TO THE 



ing idol falls before him, revealing the secret 
" ulcers" — a mystery hitherto concealed from his 
vision. The mysteries of a false civilization may 
not dazzle him ! for with an unforgiving and 
uplifted arm he rends aside the veil of this dark 
and mysterious Isis ! " I present myself with fear 
and trembling/' says Pascal, " not unmixed with 
a feeling of admiration, before the presence of 
that supreme intelligence, which, with the flight 
of the swift-winged eagle, through some unknown 
influence possesses the power of divination \" In 
like manner does our author (in the best of 
humours) flatter himself with his own superior 
qualities of vision. In his short voyage in Russia, 
he informs us that though he "has seen very 
little, he has imagined much." This we readily 
discovered, and for which imaginary qualities we 
give him full credit. 

The magic wand of divination, which the 
Marquis wields so dexterously, is put in full play, 
from the moment of his august presence in our 
territory ; and it would appear, that even before 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE, IS 

he sets foot on our soil, he had learned his lesson 
intuitively by heart. Nothing can afford the 
reader a better or more elegant idea of his quick 
perception and logic than a glance at the very 
first canto of his Odyssey. 

After many egotistical and curious details 
respecting himself, his family, and ancestors ad 
nauseum, but which our author imagines of a 
necessary tendency, inasmuch as his travels are 
to serve as " materials to his biography," M. de 
Custine arrives at Lubeck, with the intention of 
there embarking for St. Petersbourg. 

Gifted with the elements of an inquisitive 
mind, he there enters into an agreeable chit-chat 
with the innkeeper, who however, endowed with 
a christian benevolence, endeavours to dissuade 
him from his purpose. " Sir knight," says Boni- 
face, "I have remarked that the Russians who 
visit Germany are particularly gay, and in the 
highest spirits, on their arrival; but woefully 
melancholy on returning thence." Upon this, 
our author scratches his head to obtain an idea, 



14 



REPLY TO THE 



whereby he may expound this startling fact. An 
ordinary mind would have guessed that the Rus- 
sians who visit Germany by way of Lubeck, arrive 
there at a most favorable season, and who on 
quitting St. Petersbourg left it unadorned with 
foliage or flowers. Hence, as by enchantment, 
they find themselves transplanted from a wintry 
climate to one imparting all the genial beauties 
and variegated foliage of spring. They moreover 
had during this migration a four days and nights' 
rocking on the Baltic sea, while on their arrival 
at Lubeck, after this tedious and disagreeable 
passage, they perceive the whole country redolent 
with the charms of nature, and the people pour- 
traying in their open and cheerful countenances, 
a warmth and kindly welcome to the weary tra- 
veller. 

On the other hand, when returning to re-em- 
bark in the autumnal season, the whistling of the 
equinoctial gale, with a rough and stormy sea in 
the perspective, are apt to awake anything but 
agreeable or pleasing recollections even in a stoic. 



MARQUIS DE CTTSTINE, 15 

To the Marquis and the innkeeper, however, 
(both subtle logicians) this solution would be of 
too simple a character, in men who draw their 
inferences a priori. They therefore, in their 
wisdom, conclude that a country which we quit 
with so much pleasure, and to which we return 
with a proportionate degree of regret, must 
necessarily be a most detestable one, and this 
is imprimis a very ingenious deduction certainly. 

This error of our author's is adopted at starting, 
but with a cautious reserve, informing Boniface 
that he was very probably right in his opinion ; 
but which, however, fails not to make a strong 
impression on him, accompanied with a degree of 
hesitation in its adoption. This degree of doubt 
increases during the night preceding his embarka- 
tion ; he is seized with a feverish fit, while fatal 
presentiments flit across his troubled brain. 
Siberia, like a ghastly phantom, with all its 
horrors and miseries, appears at his pillow ! He 
passes a restless night, and considers in his mind 
whether, like an adventurous Paladin of old, he 



16 



REPLY TO THE 



should set out on his perilous enterprize, and run 
the gauntlet at all hazards, or whether, like the 
renowned Sancho, deeming prudence the better 
part of valour, he should make a counter-march 
towards home. But, should he retrograde, what 
would his friends, the journals, the world in Paris 
say ? What would be the opinion of the public 
in the Port of Travemunde ? After this cruel night 
of suspense and wavering "between hope and 
fear," aurora beams upon his troubled spirit, 
without dispelling the darkness veiling his intel- 
lectual faculties. Happily, in pure compassion, 
an immortal ray beams on him, in the shape of 
inspiration ! thus relieving him in this most 
disagreeable dilemma. He, moreover, very a- 
propos remembers, that the marquises of ancient 
comedy, in such doubtful and mysterious cases, 
referred to Frontin as an authority ; he therefore 
summons, not Frontin, but his faithful Italian, by 
name Antonio, who it would appear is honored 
with the special confidence of the Marquis. This 
youthful Cicerone plays a respectable and by no 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 17 

means an unimportant part in the Marquis's 
travels and adventures; and to quote from the 
original, "he possesses the countenance and 
intelligence of the modern Roman politicians, 
with the generous and noble heart of the ancients." 
To this specimen of the antique the Marquis says, 
" shall we go V " By all means/' says Antonio, 
(herein reversing the case of the centurion of 
Capernaum in scripture.) " But why so ?" says 
the Marquis. "Because" — replies the valet; 
this being conclusive as a sine qua non, they 
depart. " Call the boat/' sighs the Marquis, and 
with a feverish chill, shaking off his thoughts of 
Siberia, he embarks on board the steam-boat for 
his destination. 



18 



CHAPTER II. 



" What great events from little causes spring P 
Without the ominous and providential "because" 
of Figaro, the illustrious statesman would have 
remained immured in the regions of doubt, 
Russia would have passed unnoticed by his 
graphic pen, the Russians would have lost the 
valuable lessons of the immortal historian, and 
we should have been deprived the perusal of this 
beautiful production of his genius, disclosing our 
past and future destinies which, in the wise and 
discriminating prevoyance of the Marquis, is to be 
henceforth the alpha and omega for our political 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 19 

aspirants — such is the destiny of nations ! The 
advent of Napoleon sinks into insignificance when 
compared with it. 

On board this Argo, our Jason finds a rich 
harvest for speculation in the shape of inductions 
and deductions. A fat Russian prince and excel- 
lent Seignior withal, offers to assist him in his 
good work, with obliging civility. " I am," says 
he, "about to present you with a little instru- 
ment which, like the key to Pandora's box, will 
open to you the mysteries of this our mysterious 
country." Here M. de Custine, like a second 
Telemaque, independent of the good fortune of 
possessing Antonio the Roman, was now doubly 
blessed in the possession of a Nestor. 

Some persons are born to greatness — some 
achieve greatness — others have greatness thrust 
upon them. This therefore may be well imagined 
was a remarkable instance of unforeseen good 
luck thrust upon the Marquis, a man destined to 
see and judge of men and things as he found them, 
not as he thought them ; who was moreover the 



20 



REPLY TO THE 



quintessence of politeness, a professed amateur in 
all things referring to general formulae or princi- 
ples, and who possessed the charm of abridging 
or reducing facts, according as it might answer 
the purpose of one simple general cause ! 

In the pockets of a traveller, a bunch of keys 
we believe to be an insufferable inconvenience ; 
while of the two, a passport is certainly the most 
agreeable. It is necessary, however, to be equi- 
table; hence, as a gentleman of polite education, 
M. de Custine has a slight hesitation of accepting 
the proffered boon, after which he as politely and 
quietly pockets it, and exercises henceforth his 
jurisdiction over it, with a remarkable degree of 
dexterity and "savoir vivre" — opening with a 
legerdemain truly astonishing all the Bramah 
locks and padlocks of our social arcanum. With 
this famous key, he informs us, that Russia has 
remained in the darkness of bigotry; and that 
she has hitherto been a stranger, both to the 
influence of Catholicism and chivalry ! Hence 
has resulted, a host of lamentable consequences, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 21 

and among others, albeit the reason why the sen- 
timent of honor is totally unknown in Russia, 
and of which the Russians neither have nor will 
have the remotest idea. Hence the little reliance 
to be placed in their promises, and the little faith 
in their political engagements, while deceit and 
fraud have been their traditional characteristics, 
since the acquisition of those amiable qualities 
from the Byzantine Greeks. And hence again, 
while other nations make war for the honor and 
glory arising from it, these barbarous warriors 
only fight for the sake of ambition and plunder ! 
What are the consequences of this in a philosophic 
point of view ? In the spirit of controversy we 
might with some propriety ask M. de Custine 
whether, in such case, he does not confound two 
very distinct characteristics — "honor" and "the 
point of honor." If, however, honor, in the real 
acceptation of the term (good faith, integrity, and 
respect for our word) form a paramount principle 
in the laws of chivalry, which of the two, we may 
ask on quitting prison, shewed themselves most 



22 



REPLY TO THE 



faithful to their "word of honor" — the pagan 
Romulus or the catholic king and knight of chi- 
valry ? Again, we may ask, whether Machiavel 
or Csesar Borgia studied at Byzantium ? or 
whether those good catholics, Ferdinand, Charles 
V, Louis XI, Richelieu, Mazarin, and Louis XIV, 
made war on a platonic scale for the pure love of 
glory, without an alloy of ambition or the avidity 
of conquest. 

The English bard, Shakespeare, somewhere 
says, there is "much virtue in if." This con- 
junction, however, seems to afford our author 
very little embarrassment, and he philosophically 
gets over it with a remarkable degree of self-suffi- 
ciency and assurance. 

Still upon the waters, our Argonaut has the 
further good fortune to become acquainted with 
an amiable princess — an elegant but delicate 
creature, fit for "the heroine of a Scotch romance 
— with red hair, blue opaque eyes, a mild though 
inexpressive countenance, with a tinge of melan- 
choly. The sight of this Ossianic form, beheld 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 23 

in the ray of a polar night, was in harmony with 
the sky above, deceitful in appearance, which with 
its glimmering twilight remains unchangeable." 

Thus is our author inspired with the most 
ingenious sentiments. Like the f heroine' for his 
Scotch romance, without reference to the truth 
or not of his description, as characteristic of 
Scotch ladies in general, he conveniently selects 
this princess as an example of all the "pale" 
beauties of the north. They are indifferent types 
of woman — ft flowers without blossom or color — 
imperfect specimens, with undefined and insipid 
sensations, incapable of passion, whose existence 
is as the mere evanescent shadow in a dream." 
But this is not all ; for the Marquis moreover 
assures us, " what others do, they content them- 
selves with dreaming of!" We therefore beg 
to congratulate their husbands on the important 
discovery of this their present state of conjugal 
felicity. 

It would further appear, that the husband of 
this suffering and fragile fair one is not without 



24 



REPLY TO THE 



his weak points. A trip, however, to the cold 
baths of Grsefenberg speedily remedies this con- 
stitutional defect, and for which they are so justly 
celebrated. But if we are to believe the Marquis, 
as if France was paramount to all other countries 
in the application of the science of medicine — 
as if homeopathy was not there introduced from 
Germany — he proclaims the Russians as " slaves 
to fashion, taking to themselves the credit of 
the inventions of others, and professing them- 
selves enthusiastic admirers of every novel inven- 
tion/' 

The following passage is truly sublime, and 
affords an amusing specimen of general conclu- 
sions based on one particular inference. 

On board the steamer was another princess, 
whether dark or fair, hazel, or eyes a la Chinoise, 
we know not; but she was of "riper age than 
the pale beauty of the north." This lady had 
eight days previously embarked at St. Peters- 
burg, to join her daughter, whom she believed 
to be in Switzerland. On the same day, however, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 25 

the young lady herself embarked at Lubeck, to 
join her mother at St. Petersbourg; hence, of 
course, unknowingly they passed each other on 
the passage to the place of their destination. This 
to an ordinary mind is a natural consequence — 
not so to our philosopher. " This affords," says 
the Marquis seriously, " a melancholy example of 
the want of foresight in the Russians, for had 
they mutually written to each other, this serious 
disappointment might have been prevented," or, 
he might have added, had Mademoiselle le Nor- 
mand had the honor of an introduction to them 
previous to their departure ! Indulgent reader, 
I am not inventing nor exaggerating — I do but 
copy verbatim. 

After this, another passenger is summoned to 
appear in the arena, a model of the savant, in the 
form of a Russian professor or grammarian, and 
whom with little respect for the republic of letters 
our author, considering he is a new convert to 
liberal doctrines, treats somewhat aristocratically. 
The freedom with which the savant discourses, 
c 



26 



REPLY TO THE 



creates a suspicion in the mind of the Marquis; 
and as in Russia every man beneath the rank of 
a prince, who expresses his opinions, is necessarily 
looked upon as a government spy, our author's 
innocent fellow traveller was without further 
process set down as such. This, however, is 
merely the first stage of that unfortunate species 
of monomania which induces our enlightened and 
discriminating author to imagine himself sur- 
rounded, as he proceeds in his peregrinations, 
with a tribe of gentlemen of this suspicious cha- 
racter in Russia ; whether he be in the company 
of custom-house officers, innkeepers, servants, or 
gardes champetres. He even carries his suspicions 
towards the honest Germans whom he accidentally 
meets on landing, and who perceiving his cicerone 
Antonio rather dull in the comprehension of 
Russian, they very kindly assist him in sum- 
moning a coach. This can be understood, 
however, by a very simple solution. M. de Cus- 
tine has read the Journal des Debats, which 
acquaints him that the Russian government is the 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



27 



most crafty of the day, and that among us 
Russians, the spirit of espionage has arrived at 
the very acme of perfection. 

By way of parenthesis. Supposing M. de 
Custine to have been, as he imagines, under the 
constant surveillance of the innkeepers, servants, 
police, &c, how happens it that, without creating 
the slightest suspicion, he has managed so very 
conveniently, and at his perfect leisure, undis- 
turbed by any prying eye or inquisitive tongue — 
how happens it that he has written four volumes, 
certainly anything but favorable to Russia? For 
he distinctly informs us, that all his manuscripts 
and letters were written on the very spot which 
they describe, and to which they have reference. 
Had it been otherwise, his having allowed four 
years to elapse previous to publication, his 
memory would have proved somewhat treach- 
erous, as regards the data and truth of his very 
interesting inquiries and philosophical researches. 
This admission on his part proves that our police 
c 2 



28 REPLY TO THE 

are neither so vigilant nor so inquisitive as he 
would have us believe, and that consequently 
from this circumstance, as from many other 
incongruities, we have much to learn from other 
countries. 

This dash of sentiment appears to us of a very 
piquant character ; the more especially, coming 
as it does from the country of Vidocq. 

By way of dispelling the monotony of a sea 
voyage, with great good nature the fat prince 
amuses the passengers with some highly ro- 
mantic tales ; such, for instance, as a blood-red 
knight or prince, not an inapt prototype to the 
Corsair of Lord Byron, who, with all the feudal 
spirit of a baron of the olden time, inhabited an 
island in the Gulf of Finland. He caused signal 
fires to be lit on the highest rocks, in order to 
draw the unfortunate mariner, with his storm- 
driven bark to destruction, and thereby reap a 
rich harvest from the spoils of his shipwrecked 
victims. Of this graphic and poetic history, a 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



29 



correct prose performance was exhibited, not a 
century ago, among the inhospitable and barren 
promontories of the coast of Brittany.* 

It would appear from these, that at the present 
epoch, Russia is at least centuries behind-hand 
as regards such dramatic exhibitions and romantic 
exploits. 

Next comes the adventure of the haughty 
Boyard Bomodanousky, who daringly refused, 
(in defiance of the repeated commands of Peter 
the Great) to abandon his claims in a particular 
ceremony ; and in so determined a manner did 
he maintain it, in opposition to the Czar, that 
after threatening to hang the refractory noble, 

* It is a well known fact, that the inhabitants of a 
part of the coast of Brittany were in the habit of at- 
taching lanterns to the horns of their cattle, and then 
driving them out to graze among the rocky precipices 
overhanging the ocean, with the barbarous intention of 
drawing vessels to that dangerous part of the coast. 
This heartless deception was also practised some years 
ago on the Barbadoes coast, overhanging the rocks on 
that part of the island called " Scotland." 



30 REPLY TO THE 

Peter graciously yielded him the "pride of place." 
From the moral of this anecdote, at a first glance, 
the Marquis would make it appear that the 
courtiers of Russia are not altogether so servile, 
nor are the despots so despotic — this is not the 
case however ; our author draws a more profound 
inference. According to him, the pride of the 
Muscovite noble affords us a most perfect exem- 
plification of the singular combination, whence 
the higher class of the present Russian society 
are derived. A monstrous compound of the 
ferocious and barbarous hordes of Byzantium, 
softened with the virtues of the wild Asiatic, and 
a mixture of etiquette borrowed from the Lower 
Empire. 

Alas ! What mortal ever thought 

To see Byzantium to such lowness brought ? 

Since the acquisition of his entree, the Marquis 
gives us the key to his expression of the " Lower 
Empire." Siberia and espionage are continually 
haunting his imagination. In juxtaposition with 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 31 

the proud Russian noble,, in point of etiquette, no 
less a personage that saint Simon affords a curious 
point for raillery as regards precedence among 
the seigniors of his time. The one fought a duel 
about his wife the duchess's footstool ; another 
for being refused the right side of the pavement 
when he was on the wrong; another fought a duel 
about a French cur or poodle; another, more 
vainglorious than the rest, claimed the right of 
riding in the king's carriage. Hence we may ask, 
is it not possible that these minute points of 
etiquette exhibited among the Parisian nobles, 
may also have derived their origin from the 
"Lower Empire ?" and with which we presume 
the French were during the period of the crusades, 
more intimately connected than ourselves, they 
having occupied its throne for a period of more 
than sixty years? This is a question, however, 
which we will leave for the decision of the French 
historians. 

At last the good ship makes the port of St. 
Petersbourg, and in proportion as she approaches, 



32 REPLY TO THE 

our author, notwithstanding his wit and conversa- 
tional qualities, begins to imagine that he becomes 
less noticed, or in other words, comparatively a 
nonentity, amid the bustle incidental to the arrival 
of all ships to port. This induces a fit of taciturn 
reflection in him. The vessel arrives, the passen- 
gers land, while husbands, relations, and friends, 
after a long absence, very naturally embrace each 
other, a la mode du pays. Amid this scene of 
happy and cordial recognition, even to a stranger, 
to the horror of the author, both princes and 
princesses, Scotch heroines and brotherly savants, 
commit the unpardonable error of forgetting to 
wish him " good bye ! ! !" Hence, fresh inferences 
are drawn, and the whole Russian nation are, in 
one general anathema, pronounced to be the most 
forgetful and inconsiderate of christians. "Trust 
neither to their politeness, nor their honied 
professions of friendship ! They are bears, decked 
out as apes, who lick your hand in order that 
they may the better deceive." 

"The people of the north are inconstant at 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 33 

heart, and possess doubtful, or the most opposite 
sentiments ; they are cold in their affections, and 
like the sun which shines over them, without 
imparting one genial or glowing ray of heat or 
warmth, fixed or steadfast in nothing, or to 
nobody ; voluntarily abandoning the soil which 
gave them birth. Created for the purpose of 
invasions, these people are singled out (a most 
singular circumstance) as destined to descend 
from the pole, at epochs marked out by a wise 
dispensation of providence, (now comes the 
climax) in order by the admixture of their species, 
to moderate the fiery passions of the people inhabit- 
ing the southern nations of Europe." This 
passage certainly " out-herods Herod V 

This reproach, par parenthese, we cousider 
rather out of place, especially at a moment when 
the very individual who describes us as " faithless 
and inconstant," with his own eyes beholds us 
embracing dearest friends and relations on our 
native soil, and that with a little more enthusiasm 
c 5 



34 



REPLY TO THE 



and feeling, perhaps, than the author would wish 
to give us credit for — at a moment, when instead 
of Russians wishing to " descend from the pole," 
they are expressing their heartfelt satisfaction and 
congratulation at getting back again ! 

Notwithstanding this diatribe, however, about 
the " north, providence, invasions, &c, to cool the 
temperaments of those inhabiting the southern 
nations," our author confesses that his fellow 
travellers occasionally favored him with the like 
marks of warm recognition; but never, never 
but in this instance, did he feel so acutely that 
loss of the considerate farewell address of affection 
as on the present occasion, on landing at St. 
Petersbourg. 

From this ingenious assumption we may per- 
ceive, that even before landing on our shores, 
M, de Custine has been particularly observant of 
the peculiarities of our national character, that, as 
it were, he already knew us as a people from one 
or two isolated individuals, and that, as I had 
previously observed, he arrives at St Petersbourg 



MARQUIS DE €USTINE. 35 

with a description of Russia and the Russians 
already illustrated in his portfolio. 

This rage for generalizing or sophisticating 
from the merest trifles or circumstances, and of 
drawing results and impressions from accidental 
incidents not to be forgotten, but seriously to be 
impressed on " the tablet of his memory/ 5 never 
for one moment abandons him during the whole 
course of his travels. Whether at St. Petersbourg 
or at Moscow, at Moscow or at Jaroslaff, at 
Jaroslaff or at Nijni, the same results and infer- 
ences are drawn, and pertinaciously adhered to. 
Of this I could adduce twenty proofs ; one 
however shall suffice. 

The scene occurs on the banks of the Volga. 
While our traveller was perambulating alone, in 
quiet meditation^ and following the thread of his 
prolific ideas, with eyes fixed upon the flowing 
stream, he heard suddenly, in the distance, harmo- 
nious sounds ; these strains arose from some 
boatmen, who were as usual singing in chorus 



36 REPLY TO THE 

one of their native airs, while floating down the 
river on a raft of timber. 

'•'When I beheld the natives apparently 
approach towards me, I suddenly stopped/ 5 
says the Marquis somewhat solemnly, "and to 
my astonishment, they passed on without even 
so much as noticing me, or without even making 
the slightest observations among themselves." 
The clowns ! to pass without even one look, as if 
for recognition, or murmur of approbation, or 
look of curiosity at having seen the father of so 
many celebrated romances, the author of "Spain 
under Ferdinand VII/ 3 "the world as it is, 
and Russia as it is not !" 

This certainly deserves especial notice ; hence 
on the spot itself we can imagine the unknown 
author ab irato, drawing forth his memorandum 
book, and inditing in legible characters the 
following maxim, to be afterwards graven in 
letters of brass, or copper, on the page of 
history • to wit. 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE, 37 

" The Russians are taciturn, and not inquisi- 
tive," I understand, muses our philosophic (Edi- 
pus ; " that which they know disgusts them, with 
that of which they are ignorant." 

The Roman Juvenal wrote poetry inspired by 
a virtuous indignation ; but with our modern 
Juvenal, it will be perceived, indignation creates 
maxims. 



38 



CHAPTER III. 



The method or system of M. de Custine, such 
as I have ventured to describe it, is prompt, trite, 
and most ingenious ; and doubtless may be to 
many mightily agreeable, and even recherche ; 
while it reanimates in all their original colors, 
those fugitive impressions of travel, in proportion 
as they inspired his imagination. 

As a physchological study, destined to enable 
us to penetrate the emotions of the mind and 
soul of one of the " bel esprits" of the age, we 
feel all the importance attached to it. I am of 



REPLY TO Mo DE CUSTXNE, 



39 



opinion, however, that as a work* professing to 
describe the habits, customs, and manners of 
a people, a knowledge of which is by no means 
easy of accomplishment, must be attended with 
many obstacles, particularly where, (as in the 
present instance) the writer is liable to many 
contradictions. Our author founds his theory 
upon this principle, that, in describing a Russian, 
you describe the whole nation. This is certainly 
an easy method of description. In such case, 
however, as in many others of a like character, 
it may turn out that the theory and practice are 
at total variance with each other. For example. 
The author sees a person with an African or flat 
nose. Does it follow that the Russians must all 

* Perhaps it may be imagined we are dealing too harshly 
with M. de Custine. He himself, however, in the fol- 
lowing passage, throws out a hint as to the degree of 
importance we are to attach to his travels : " I, for my 
part," says he, " fearing that what is troublesome to 
write, may give equal trouble in the reading, have come 
to the determination of not converting my journal into 
a work of labour." 



40 



REPLY TO THE 



possess a similar nasal ornament as a proboscis ? 
While, perhaps on the morrow, the appearance 
of another with that essential article on a Grecian 
model may undeceive him. 

We have just seen that through the unpardon- 
able indiscretion of some poor innocent boatmen 
on the Volga, we have all been denounced as 
people remarkably taciturn, and possessing little 
curiosity in our nature; on the other hand, if 
perchance in his wanderings the author should fall 
in with one, more communicative and spiritual 
than the general, we are from this circumstance 
transformed in globo into "inquisitive babblers" 
and spies, worrying and sifting the traveller with 
impertinent questions. 

As M. de Custine rather amusingly informs us 
that his existence may be compared to that of 
plants, it follows that, according to sunshine or 
rain, the climate of the north inspires him with 
either fanciful poetry or vile prose. We have, 
says he in one place, but three days of the year 
on which the sun shines, and yet he is incessantly 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



41 



complaining of the heat — "equal/' says he, "to 
that of the tropics !" 

At St. Petersbourg he is annoyed with our 
straight roads, our buildings ornamented with 
pillars, and describes us as "cold imitators," and 
dull plagiarists of the antique. At Moscow the 
Kremlin does astonish him ; he is here perfectly 
transported to the seventh heaven of Mahomet ! 
and under this architectural hallucination, he 
herein discovers a specimen of real national archi- 
tecture, and admits that the Kremlin is not alto- 
gether devoid of originality. 

St. Petersbourg occasionally draws from him 
points of favorable notice, during which moments 
(thanks to our church bells, drochkis, and the 
costume of our little postillions, it is pronounced 
to be a most picturesque city) ! On a certain day 
of the week, our national airs quite enchanted 
him, from their originality; on another they 
appear to him monotonous and insipid — thus veri- 
fying his own beautiful allegorical simile, when 
comparing his existence to that of plants — one 



42 



REPLY TO THE 



day inspired with the sweet illusions of poetry, 
another with the vile monotony of prose. 

If perchance he meet with people who in any 
way inconvenience or annoy him, or that he 
attend a reception at the imperial court, where 
the greater part, incommoded with their uniforms, 
or occupied in their various diplomatic functions 
of office, have neither the time, nor it may be 
inclination, to enter into conversation with him, 
he at once comes to the fatal conclusion, that the 
Russians have not the slightest notions of polite 
conversation ! But should he, however, chance 
to fall into an agreeable circle, you might collect 
ideas from their conversation which would more 
than fill a volume with maxims profound as 
Bruyere, or tales as interesting and piquant as 
the Decameron. 

It is the same with politics ; here the author 
cannot sufficiently express his indignation towards 
the nobles, who refuse liberty to the serfs, while 
on the other hand he is the first to proclaim, that 
to redeem such people from their present con- 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 43 

dition, to a state of unconditional freedom, would 
be tantamount to setting the whole of Russia in 
a state of conflagration ! So much for his con- 
sistency. 

Sometimes he honors us by the epithet of 
gluttons ; or, like the Samson of Milton, men 
with iron frames, giant feet, eager to swallow 
even "the great globe itself" in a mouthful ; at 
other times, we are meagre and lean as the poor 
apothecary of Shakespeare : 

"All bare and full of wretchedness, 

: famine in our cheeks, 

Need and oppression staring in our eyes, 
And clothed in robe of ragged misery !" 

In reading these travels, one would really be 
led to imagine, that Gulliver or bedlam had 
broken loose. We are irresistibly led on from 
simple events, gradatim et seriatim, to others of 
a more astonishing, nay, even astounding charac- 
ter, even to a Russian ! As if transplanted from 
the land of the " dwarfs" to that of the " giants" 



44 REPLY TO THE 

at every page, the reader travels by indirect roads 
from Lilliput to Brobdingnag, from Brobdingnag 
to Lilliput. Some of these antitheses, however, 
become of so offensive a character, that even 
M. de Custine himself confesses his astonish- 
ment. " Reproach me not for my contradictions," 
says he, "for I perceived them from the com- 
mencement." After this candid and modest 
confession, no one would think of reproaching 
him had he confined himself to facts. Without 
commenting on them in a manner so perfectly 
sui generis, but under the influence of his talis- 
manic key, they become immediately generalized. 
It is not so much the facts themselves which are 
offensive, but the general inferences which he 
draws from them. To place in contrast by no 
means implies contradiction. These words pos- 
sess a very different signification. The world is 
full of contrasts ; still the world is one and the 
same. Nature is not inconsistent, but a man 
frequently becomes so, when he seeks to explain, 
or reason upon her works. We meet with one; 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 45 

who bears the reputation of being an excellent 
person ; still he may possess both bad and good 
qualities — firmness and weakness — littleness of 
mind and greatness of soul — as Byron says of 
Napoleon : 

" On little objects with like firmness fixt." 

There was a reason for our eagle being repre- 
sented with two heads; this, however, did not 
prevent his being represented with one body. 
To comprehend in its true sense, the meaning of 
this J anus species of bird, the observer should 
behold the heads directly from the front; (and 
while I grant it has rather a singular appearance) 
you will then perceive, in the tout ensemble, the 
force of the application or allegory, viz., " strength 
in unity," or, in other words, implying "two 
heads are better than one." Unfortunately, how- 
ever, unlike the discriminating observer, M. de 
Custine can only discover one at a time, and he 
speaks of each by turns, as if the other never 
existed ; thus reminding us very much of Arle- 



46 



REPLY TO THE 



quin, who, wishing to dispose of his house, carried 
about with him a stone concealed beneath his 
cloak, and which he showed to the bidders as a 
specimen of the general building. M. de Custine 
has, in the same manner, carried with him two or 
three such specimens to Paris, in order to gull 
the good Parisians respecting Russia and the 
Russians. 

xigainst this, however, we enter our protest, 
and beg to state that they are by no means fair 
or correct specimens of the fabric. 

As a writer of fiction and romances, we admire 
and respect him ; but as a politician, he requires 
a more noble and comprehensive mind ; capable 
of more enlarged views, and which in a glance, 
when studying the physiognomy or characteristics 
of a people in one particular, fails not to lose 
sight of the general whole. 

By neglecting this principle it follows, that 
while he sees and describes, with some degree of 
truth, one side of an object, he is generally 
incorrect as regards the other. The power of 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 47 

witty and spirited description he is not devoid of, 
while his volumes abound with much originality 
of idea. He has, however, collected more ma- 
teriel than his head could methodically or reasona- 
bly arrange; hence he has perplexed his wits with 
trifling incidents, wove into inharmonious and 
discordant passages, forming a shapeless chaos of 
perverted intellect — a species of tohu-bohu, in 
which he ultimately gets bogged. His very ideas 
puzzle and perplex him, his errors being not 
unfrequently truth in profile, till at last he 
becomes so completely miope } as very creditably 
and frankly to confess that " at most he has but 
compiled the raw materials for a work," and that 
" so will it remain, until it haply fall into hands 
more competent to the task." Hence it follows, 
by a most extraordinary anamorphosis, that M. 
de Custine can come to no conclusion at all ! 

For the sake of our national honor, patriotism, 
and glory, we shall ever have cause to regret the 
author should have made so short a sojourn 
among us ; and that our moral Hogarth should 



48 REPLY TO THE 

only have painted us in our summer costume ! 
If, in the short space of three months, he has 
found so many beautiful objects and scenes 
abounding amongst us, what in the name of all 
the graces would he not have discovered during 
our eight enchanting winter months ? In truth, 
I doubt not but that his intuitive and inventive 
genius would have unravelled the mystery of our 
" social enigma" with all the solemnity of a 
Dodonoean oracle ! Instead of which, by with- 
drawing from us the light of his beneficent 
countenance, the mirror of his understanding, 
and the inspiration of his presence, he leaves us 
in total darkness as to our future hopes and 
destinies. 

This I regret on my own account, for I could 
have wished much to unravel the mystery of his 
further researches ; as it is, we must live in hope, 
and like the "benighted children of the north" as 
we are, we must needs eat, drink, and be merry 
while w T e may. 

If, as we hope, M. de Custine will do us the 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 49 

favor of again partaking of our hospitality, and of 
which he has so nobly, so generously, and so 
worthily availed himself, we will take the liberty 
of offering him, for his future guidance, a few 
humble hints and observations, which he will find 
of eminent utility in his future wanderings. 
While addressing them to him as our preceptor, 
of course we cannot think of calling them 
instructions. 

" Trifling gifts preserve friendship and being 
so much beholden to him in this respect, we 
cannot but make him sensible of our truly grateful 
acknowledgments. 

Imprimis, should the Marquis determine on 
returning among us, we would specially recom- 
mend him to take Russia in flank, or, in other 
words, to enter by the Crimea, or through our 
provinces of the Caucasus, particularly at the 
present moment, should he be of a military turn. 
Should Mount Atlas appear too far for him, he 
might make an agreeable detour of a few wersts 
in the direction of the Oural mountains. 

D 



50 



REPLY TO THE 



We perceive by his travels, that the author has 
a horror of flat countries, while the dull monotony 
of the regions of Y Ingrie, we fear, has prejudiced 
him against all the rest. To remedy this dis- 
agreeable mode of travel, his arriving at the south 
will put him in much better humour; he will 
have the advantage of beholding a more brilliant 
sun, eat excellent grapes like a fox, and will there 
find an abundance of lofty mountains, whereon 
he might study serology to a fraction. Valleys, 
rocks, waterfalls, and above all, beautiful declivi- 
ties, presenting to his astonished eye, " in a fine 
phrenzy rolling/' a magnificent combination of 
forest scenery, and flowery meads, perfect arcadias, 
like oceans of verdure extending beneath his feet, 
with infinite hosts of nymphs and fauns, which his 
fertile imagination might conjure up ad libitum. 

Methinks on viewing this, (should it ever meet 
his eye) we hear the Marquis exclaim : « oh ! 
that mine enemy would write a book" on travels, 
and print it ! oh, that I should have left Russia 
without beholding these enchanting scenes ! 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 51 

Return, my dear Marquis, and you shall 
behold them on this road, to your heart's content. 

Who, not having seen Beam, Auvergne, or 
Dauphine, would be justified in calling France a 
" flat country V or who, only having travelled 
through La Beauce, Picardy, and seen the 
heaths of Bordeaux, or the chalky soil of Cham- 
pagne, (vulgarly called "abandoned") would dis- 
pute the title to her of " La Belle France V 9 

Much depends on first impressions, particularly 
with sensitive minds like that of our author. 
" C'est le premier pas qui coute." This, it would 
appear, he has universally adopted as his motto. 

I have myself known many Russians who, like 
Candide, have entered Paris through the streets 
of the Quarter of St. Marceau, whom I have never 
been able to convince that that capital was a most 
beautiful city ! 

In Russia, the peasantry imagine that should 
it rain on the anniversary of St. Elia, it will con- 
tinue so until the autumn. We cannot therefore 
be too cautious how we draw conclusions or 
d 2 



52 REPLY TO M. DE CUSTINE. 

inferences from first appearances. Hence it is 
in travelling, as with everything else. What we 
behold at the beginning of our journey, is by no 
means an indication of what we may see en 
passant to the end. Nor does it follow that from 
a good beginning all may end well. 



53 



CHAPTER IV. 



If, notwithstanding these considerations, the 
author will persist in revisiting us by the same 
route, we take the liberty of making this neces- 
sary and urgent request of him. 

We entreat of him to forego his visit to Ems, 
and take Carlsbad in preference, whose cool and 
purifying waters are a specific and sovereign 
remedy against all those inflammatory and bilious 
affections, which sooner or later degenerate into 
confirmed spleen. He himself complains of the 
little advantage he derived from the waters of 
Ems, and that he was still suffering (as we 



54 



REPLY TO THE 



perceived to our sorrow) from that unfortunate 
malady on his entering Russia. He has, more- 
over, during his sojourn among us, been affected 
with opthalmia, which was of that character as 
to compel him to bandage his eyes — a circum- 
stance certainly unfavorable to his forming a 
correct notion of the people and the objects 
around him. This debilitated state of his organs 
of vision, combined with a general derangement 
of the digestive organs, produced (as must have 
been perceived) a most unfortunate effect on the 
mind during his travels among us. Nothing 
affords him pleasure — nothing pleases him, and 
he becomes the perfect model of a Prometheus or 
hypochondriac, while his feeble imagination, like 
that of Moliere's " Malade Imaginaire," is per- 
petually haunted with phantoms.* 

In reference to the post houses, it sometimes 
happens that from some irregularity, travellers 
may (as in all countries) be delayed from the 

* " The imagination," says he, " is skilled in the art of 
tormenting ; my heart is as a vision." 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 55 

absence of horses. To remedy this inconvenience 
however, in this case, they accommodated the 
Marquis with the services of an " employe" in 
that department. He is immediately denounced 
as a spy, sent to watch him ! They, moreover, 
as a further protection to him, allow a feldjeger 
or garde-champetre to accompany him as far as 
Schlusselbourg, and he is looked upon by our 
observant traveller as a satellite of despotism, 
commissioned probably to convey him to Siberia. 

In like manner, the hospitality which he 
receives is by no means considered as disinter- 
ested, and in the opinion of our author, is 
exercised merely in order that they may with the 
greater facility obtain his confidence and thereby 
penetrate into his most secret thoughts and 
intentions. Thus it is that before his mistrust- 
ful vision, all appears unnatural and in a measure 
repugnant. Throughout his work (though he in 
vain studies to conceal it) we behold in almost 
every page the hypochondriac tinge imparted to 
his mind and thoughts. 



56 



REPLY TO THE 



His deductions, sometimes ingenious, gradually 
degenerate into subtle cunning, till they end in 
becoming most absurd. His prejudices are 
carried so far that even bis own countrymen, who 
do us the honor of patronizing and gaining an 
honest livelihood among us, are not exempt. 
Hence, there is not an aubergiste, or innkeeper 
of that nation, whom he does not hesitate to 
denounce as corrupt and degenerate. 

If such be the Marquis's opinion of his own 
countrymen, it may well be imagined what he 
must think of us. "Whatever may be our faults 
and errors, he who visits us as a moralist or 
censor should exercise a certain degree of dis- 
cretion and calmness of temper in his judgment. 
A preceptor should be mild, even when he 
reproaches his pupils, and instruct them how to 
remedy their errors. Truth, like a beautiful 
woman unadorned, should have no blemish. 

From M. de Custine's courteous treatment of 
us, however, what is the result ? That notwith- 
standing we would most willingly make due 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 57 

allowance and admit our imperfections, under 
other circumstances or censorship, with the exer- 
cise of a milder expression of opinion, his obser- 
vations come home to us in so prejudiced, false, 
and garbled a manner, and in so questionable a 
shape, that their effects are neither productive of 
good nor ill, save that he has certainly lost our 
good opinion of both him and his work. 

There are some, however, wounded in their 
patriotism, and indignant at his haughty air of 
superiority, get angry, and throw his book " au 
diable." Others, confirmed sinners, become 
hardened in their iniquity, and by way of stifling 
their consciences (if they have any) coolly say to 
themselves : " the poor man sees double, or he is 
evidently suffering from a splenetic affection \" 

Who would court his acquaintance, when he 
styles us " scarcely men V — when he tells us 
that " our summer days are more gloomy than 
are our nights V — when he even goes so far as 
to say, that every man whom he observes laugh- 
ing in Russia, must necessarily be a comedian, a 
d 5 



58 



REPLY TO THE 



flatterer, or a drunkard V } Perhaps M. de Cus- 
tine, in his infinite spirit of benevolence, will 
create for us a fourth order for his jocularity. 

It is when he describes the nature of our 
government, however, that he carries his gross 
and unpardonable exaggeration beyond endurance. 
Were we to believe him, the shadow of death, the 
frightful and eternal silence of the tomb, reigns 
from one end of Russia to the other. Princes 
and subjects, slaves and tyrants, are all wretched 
beings, conspiring against each other, amid pre- 
judices and falsehood, rivalling each other in 
ferocity, and only bound together by a link of 
mutual terror ! Happiness, peace, and even 
pleasure is unknown in Russia; in fact, the whole 
empire, from one end to the other, is as it were 
in a state of siege between the governing and the 
governed. 

How the author could imagine even a shadow 
of the existence of such a state of society, is 
beyond our conceptions. It is a moral impossi- 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 59 

bility, for however badly constituted may be the 
elements of society in Russia, it has not come 
to that point in which man could debar his fellow 
man from his allotted share of domestic or worldly 
happiness. 

Can a state of siege endure for centuries? The 
reign of terror, which in France lasted but for 
three or four years, could it — (however barbarous 
a country may be) could it serve as a base for its 
existence or duration ? Certainly not. If, there- 
fore, it so happened that our own country stood 
but on so fragile and unnatural a basis, one half 
of our population would long since have emi- 
grated, or else the whole empire would ere this 
have been crushed beneath some dreadful con- 
vulsion. Since such is not the case — since 
Russia is still united, and has been so for cen- 
turies, it follows that there must exist some closer 
tie between the prince and his vassal — a tie of a 
more mysterious and undefined nature — and 
which it would appear is beyond even the per- 
ception or comprehension of our author to solve. 



60 



REPLY TO THE 



We strongly recommend him by all means to 
devote his attention to the subject. Sir Isaac 
Newton discovered the law of gravitation from 
an accidental and simple circumstance, and to 
this effect it may be well worth the trouble of a 
second trip to our benighted country. 

There is one fact, however, of which M. de 
Custine has made particular mention, and which 
we readily admit, although he has somewhat 
modified it. I allude to that passage wherein 
he states, that among the Russians he discovers 
more " discipline" than real " esprit d'ordre" or 
regularity. This is too true. The law as of 
right is not sufficiently present to our eyes, and 
to effect this, it should be as it were ingrafted in 
us. 

It is this carelessness of order and regularity 
which, from habit, has become an error peculiar 
to the Sclavonians in general, which, except 
Russia proper, has lost them political existence, 
and which imposes the necessity of an absolute 
authority, commensurate with the vast extent of 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



61 



the empire, and that concentrated in one all- 
powerful ruler.* 

If, then, the Russians are attached to this mode 
of government, it is not from idolatry, nor for 
the pure love of slavery ; it is from the conscious- 
ness of its imperious necessity, arising from a 
considerate mistrust of themselves. The people 
like this form of government from instinct, 
custom, and if you will, religious superstition. 

There are men among the Russians endowed 
with sound reason, and all the nobler sentiments 
which the human heart and mind are capable 
of developing, (not fools or half-gentlemen, 
infatuated with Utopian notions of government) 
more so than M. de Custine would be led to 
imagine. 

Without withholding our admiration of wiser 

* In Vienna, the Austrian capital, where the most 
stringent laws and absolute sovereignty prevails, it is a 
well known fact that the middling classes are in every- 
way protected, and the laboring classes pronounced to be 
the happiest under the sun ; they neither meddle with 
politics, nor do politics trouble them. 



6& REPLY TO THE 

and more practical forms of regulating society — 
without denying that elsewhere (though rarely 
and for but of short duration) the happy asso- 
ciations of liberty and order may be established — 
we feel, however, that our own principles of 
absolute authority are necessary to maintain the 
political machinery of this colossal empire, in 
order and security — that superior in intelligence 
to the immense mass of the governed, accessible 
to all opinions on reasonable projects beneficial 
to the state, and alive to the inspirations of talent 
and genius — this power will long exercise its 
sway and dominion over the minds and senti- 
ments of the Russians, until in the due course of 
events, it gradually advances to more legislative 
and constitutional perfection. 

"Whatever may be the inconveniences or abuses 
attending this system, time alone can remedy, in 
proportion to the gradual advancement of civili- 
zation and morals, subject also to the judicious 
exercise of the supreme power of the state itself. 

If there do exist abuses within the sphere of 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 63 

government, committed under the shadow of its 
control, but unknown to the sovereign — if court 
intrigue and ministerial favor at times usurp the 
place of real merit, where merit is due, or justice 
be refused to him who claims and deserves it — 
if the sigh of neglect, the voice of despair, or the 
tear of misery, alas ! are drowned, or pass un- 
heeded in the space between the suppliant and the 
throne — (and what nation is free from this arbi- 
trary evil?) they know that the sovereign would be 
the first to relieve them, and exercise his authority 
in their behalf ; and while they silently lament this 
cruel evil, more or less existent in all human 
institutions, they leave to others of sterner 
nature, less devoted to the dispensations of 
providence, the stoical heroism of precipitating 
themselves, perchance for a lesser evil, into the 
abyss of irretrievable ruin ! 

Hence the Russian people adhere to this form 
of government from the necessity of union ; they 
are also in some degree attached to it from a sense 
of gratitude ; for in their eyes, it is this form of 



64 



REPLY TO THE 



government which has made Russia what she is, 
and what she is destined to become, while the 
other Sclavonians, not under its immediate influ- 
ence, unrestrained by this tutelary authority, have 
become the victims of anarchy, and divided them- 
selves into insignificant tribes, incapable of self- 
protection : it is this mode of government which 
has constituted Russia, which has preserved her 
unity, her nationality, her independence, and 
which has raised her, as if by miracle, to a rank 
among nations, while she is gradually progressing 
by means of civilization, improved cultivation, 
and general industry in the people, to the enviable 
position of one of our most exalted. 

In all this, however, still laboring under a false 
delusion; or viewing men and things with a 
partial or prejudiced mind, M. de Custine can 
discover nothing more than the thirst for domi- 
nion, pride, and political ambition ! Proud or 
not, this sentiment is not the less legitimate in 
itself. It was the idol of the Romans ! for it 
made them what they were. The French, so 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 65 

dilatory in culling the scattered gems of their 
crown of monarchy, have ever acted under the 
impulse, and in virtue of this principle. It is the 
grand stimulus to all nations, and displays a 
noble independence of the human mind. 

The first impulse of our nature is to obtain the 
means of existence, to be independent of others, 
and which by the application of industry, con- 
duces to independence, happiness, and wealth ; 
while in the exercise of these energies, the habits, 
customs, and morals of a nation are ameliorated ; 
but in a state where corruption has not preceded 
anarchy, anarchy has always entailed corruption; 
in a word, the weakness and dependence of a 
state enervates the national spirit and degrades 
its character; for too true it is, that misfortune 
alike corrupts nations as individuals; and if 
perchance individuals may sometimes form an 
exception, this is inevitably the result with 
nations. 

In reference to our history, it is on such a 
useful and prolific subject, that we could wish 



66 



REPLY TO THE 



M. de Custine had employed his talents and pen, 
instead of laboriously selecting, as he has done, 
unworthy examples of servility and ferocity. This 
does not prove him " amicus humani generis." 

By selecting and linking together a few chrono- 
logical events, there is not great difficulty in 
constructing an historical theory. "Histories," 
says Montesquieu, "are distorted facts founded 
upon truisms." I would at any time take upon 
myself to compose a history of France, compiled 
upon this model ; all the details shall be exact ; 
but all the conclusions absurd : to wit — I should 
purposely throw into the shade all those good and 
noble qualities, which have won for the French 
nation the admiration of the world, and running 
into the opposite extreme, maliciously bring to 
light all the crimes, errors, and follies of which 
they might have been guilty. From two or three 
good qualities which they possess, I shall speak of 
them in such manner, as M. de Custine has been 
pleased to express himself in reference to our- 
selves, and say, that " the French people, from 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 67 

these inferences, are the same to-day as they were 
three centuries ago — no improvement ! It is 
true that they have had one or two excellent 
princes but I shall abstain from mentioning 
any one instance of the exercise of their good 
qualities. While, without going so far back as 
Clovis or Fredegonda, I shall, instead of embellish- 
ing my history with delineating the exalted, 
noble, and splendid qualities of Charles of Anjou, 
Philip the handsome, John of Burgundy, Louis 
XI, Charles IX, &c. — I shall pourtray them in 
all the hideous deformity of human nature. 

I should also draw up a list of all the assassina- 
tions and attempts of assassination which have 
occurred since the days of Taneguy Duchatel or 
Poltrot, down to the monster Fieschi. To this, by 
way of codicil, I shall append those which 
occurred under the Valois, Henry IV, and Louis 
XIII, during the absolute monarchy, the republic, 
the consulate, the empire, the restoration, and 
those of the present reign ; and as a further 
accompaniment to these horrors, I should give a 



68 



REPLY TO THE 



catalogue raisonne, of all the attempts to poison 
which are narrated in the memoirs during the 
reign of Louis XIV and the Regency. I should 
then somewhat ironically put the following ques- 
tions to the French nation : is it true that your 
monarchy was an absolute government, modified 
under the influence of ballad singing ? And may 
I ask, are the numerous attempts at assassination 
practised among you, characteristic of the customs 
of the day, or do these horrible practices form 
one of the peculiar morals of the people ? 

After this epitome of " remarkable events," I 
should then, with the talismanic wand of M. de 
Custine, summon to my presence a vision of all 
the horrible massacres perpetrated during the 
wars of the Armagnacs, with the Burgundians, 
Saint Bartholomew, and the League, La Fronde 
at Paris, and the army at Bordeaux, down to 
the sanguinary days of September. I should 
then challenge M. de Custine to produce me, 
throughout the world's history, an equal number 
of such atrocities — the consequences, not of 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 69 

sudden and unexpected commotion, or the blind- 
ness of passionate impulse, but resulting from a 
system — a political theory, conceived, combined, 
and premeditated in cold blood, by mercenary 
hirelings, committing their sanguinary deeds at 
so much a day. 

From these just retributions, applicable to the 
events, I should next apply them to persons. 

Should I speak of Richelieu, not a word would 
I say of his genius, the better to expose more 
prominently to view " his blood-stained cassock." 
If I meddled with Napoleon, I should take him 
familiarly by the collar, and draw him down 
from the pinnacle of his greatness — the pyramid 
of his triumphs — in the Place Vendome, and 
while perambulating with him, I should openly 
proclaim that "his reputation had been too 
much exaggerated by a great deal — that he 
bore no comparison to Alexander, Pompey, or 
Caesar — that their names threw his completely 
into the misty shades of oblivion — and that 
it, moreover, arose more from an extraordi- 



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REPLY TO THE 



nary degree of good luck, under the prophetic 
inspiration of Mademoiselle le Normand, than 
from any real attribute of merit or talent — that 
his successes arose more from the illusion of con- 
quest, and his foes running away, than from his 
real genius in tactics or strategy, and which 
illusion vanished like Banquo's ghost, the moment 
an enemy made a determined stand a la bull-dog 
— that he lost all resolution the moment his good 
fortune forsook him, whatever Byron may have 
meant to the contrary when he said : — 

" Sager than in thy fortunes ; for in them 
Ambition steeled thee on too far, so show 
That just habitual scom which could contemn 
Men and their thoughts ; 'twas wise to feel, not so 
To wear it ever on thy lip and brow, 
And spurn the instruments thou wert to use 
'Till they were turned unto thy overthrow !" 

This however is mere poetic fiction ; but to con- 
tinue my Plutarch summary — that he engaged in 
conquests when conquest was impossible, or if so, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



71 



lie required the skill and prudence to retain — - 
that he founded nothing, constructed nothing 
durable, organized nothing useful, and in fact, 
that Napoleon le Grand has left nothing great 
behind him, if we except his creation of " sous 
prefets" and his manufacture of beet-root sugar, 
which events, springing from great causes, may 
possibly immortalize him among those who pro- 
fited thereby — to the tune of "Vive? Empereur!" 



72 



CHAPTER V. 



With Gorgon shield and torch in hand, I 
should then take a peep into the revolutionary 
abyss, with a due regard to the monitory admo- 
nition of Dante : — 

" Voi che entrate, ogri speranza lasciate !" 

and from the threshold, summon to my presence 
the murderers, with hands dyed in the blood of 
martyred innocence. With a triumphant arm I 
should drag from this horrid Erebus hundreds 
of cruel, cowardly, venal, and barbarous wretches, 
suffering the tortures of the damned, and who in 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 73 

the hideous shape of executioners, yet crimsoned 
with the blood of the guillotine, torturers, and 
villains, branded with the guilt of crimes of every 
denomination, and who had enriched themselves 
by plunder — all the vile flatterers and sycophants 
of the people, who led them on to these crimes, 
in their spirit of democratic despotism, and all 
such Brutuses who became self-elected nobles. 

I should then proceed to the climax of my 
histories, and prove to all, of course in the most 
satisfactory manner, and in the " au fait" style of 
M. de Custine, that " Voltaire was perfectly 
justified in representing his countrymen as a 
mythological compound of the tiger and the ape, 
and in fact, that since the universal deluge, (for 
we are in the dark as to the state of society 
at that period) there never existed a people more 
depraved, servile, vain, ferocious and frivolous 
than the French \" 

In concluding this "strange eventful history," 
I will now ask whether the French people would 

E 



74 



REPLY TO THE 



feel gratified^ or disposed to admit what I have 
herein written respecting them, their ancestry, 
and their country in general ? — whether they 
would admit as true, this false, exaggerated, and 
odious comparison of them? The question an- 
swers itself. Yet this is, however, the manner in 
which M. de Custine has dealt with us, in his 
researches into our history from its origin to the 
present day. In like manner also, he has depicted 
the character of those great men of our nation, 
who have rendered themselves remarkable for 
their heroic deeds or nobler virtues. 

Of Peter the Great and Catherine, he contents 
himself with quoting passages on events, which 
were anything but honorable to them. In speak- 
ing of the cruelties of Iwan, he arrives at Ka- 
ramsin, and relates what with us is popular 
tradition — a tale of the crimes of that prince, 
but which are forgotten in the remembrance 
of the great services which he rendered the 
empire — in the expulsion of the Moguls, by the 
concentration of the monarchy, the subjection 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 75 

of Nowogorod, the conquest of Siberia, of Astra- 
khan, and of Kasan. 

Upon these remarkable events, the author ex- 
claims : " herein we behold the strange inconsis- 
tency in the ideas of these people, and their 
perfect indifference whether of good or evil !" 
Does M. de Custine never read what is every day 
published in France, in favor of the faction and 
the convention? Is he so blind as not to perceive 
that many writers, eminent in French literature 
for their talents, have thrown a veil over the hor- 
rors of these two unfortunate epochs of her history, 
under the plea that that faction or party saved 
France from the danger of being partitioned into 
petty sovereignties? and that it required the 
remarkable energy displayed by those monsters 
of the convention, to preserve the independence of 
the country, and which led to the extension of her 
territory ? Shall we therefore conclude, with the 
encomium, that the French nation, as a body, are 
indifferent to the administration of justice or 
government whether for good or evil?— that 
e 2 



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every principle is to be sacrificed at the altar of 
their national ambition ? — and that their sole 
political worship is the religion of success ? The 
idea were preposterous. 

I will not deny but that the barbarous period 
of our history (which it would appear the author 
has made his especial study) may not have left 
some germs, still engrafted in the present genera- 
tion ; nor am I prepared to deny, but there may 
be men among us of a brutal, debased, or crafty 
character. Nor do I uphold that our system of 
justice is perfect, our administration incorruptible, 
or that the subordinate officers of government 
are all free from mercenary feelings, or the 
venality of fraud. These abuses, especially the 
latter, which far from being glossed over or con- 
cealed, are by the government dealt with the 
utmost severity ; and so anxiously does it seek to 
repress this evil, that it encourages the publication 
of works, denouncing and exposing to public 
indignation the parties who may be discovered as 
guilty of malversation. 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



77 



Were M. de Custiue better informed as to the 
general state of our literature, he would have 
found that parties guilty of such frauds, or crimes 
of this nature, are not only made the unworthy 
heroes of romances, but are even held up to public 
ridicule and contempt in our theatres.* 

Unfortunately, we still retain among us more 
than one remnant of our ancient barbarism ; but 
does it follow from this, that we are to be com- 
pared to " fruit rotten at the core before it 
becomes ripe V 3 I am disposed to be of the con- 
trary opinion, that it is the maturity destined to 
expel the corruption. 

To throw off this barbarous custom of the 
middle ages, all the nations of Europe have had 
to go through this ordeal of purification. If we 

* As an example, I will cite the romances of Gogol, and 
his comedy, so original in its character, entitled the 
"Reviseur or Reviewer." This production was looked 
upon by many as of so severe a character, (whose opinion 
I respect, but in which I by no means participate, especi- 
ally in this instance) that the authorities were even 
reproached for permitting it to be performed at all. 



78 



REPLY TO THE 



refer to history, we shall find that long after this 
period, it abounds with complaints against vexati- 
ous oppression, the rapacity and extortion of the 
minions of the law, farmers of the revenues, and 
tax-gatherers. Has M. de Custine never heard 
mention of the word fees, which were formerly 
unscrupulously received by the judges ? It is 
only necessary to peruse "Les Plaideurs," to 
enable the reader to form an opinion of the 
manner in which justice was administered not 
two centuries ago in France. It is, however, 
from these corrupt sources, whence, in the time of 
Kacine, the Chicaneaux and Perrins-Dandins 
sprung, that noble and upright magistracy, which 
gave lustre and eternal honor to the French 
name. 

There are two qualities of corruption — that 
arising from nations in an infant state, and that 
existing among those already long established. 
The former is less of natural growth ; bad habits 
retained in ignorance and prejudice ; founded on 
old abuses which custom had more or less conse- 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 79 

crated ; it is vice in all its real iniquity ; un- 
conscious, however, of its existence in itself, 
without seeking to betray, or render others the 
victims of its duplicity. The latter is crafty, 
formal, hypocritical, cold, and argumentative in 
its course. Created from a depravity of spirit, 
and existent in a more refined state of society, 
is self-cognisant of the evil which it creates ; is 
enveloped in sophisms ; professing patriotism and 
disinterestedness; and may not inaptly be compared 
to a veiled Messaline, more immoral at heart, and 
more perverse, than the most abandoned courtezan 
by profession. The former of these corruptions 
may be eradicated — it is but a passing evil ; but 
the latter is gangrenous — eats into the very prin- 
ciple of life, and kills. 

In reference to religion, my opinion on that 
subject shall be brief — not being " in orders," and 
being moreover little disposed to theological con- 
troversy; for, as I take it, the world would be 
better with less of it, as dissension in theologists 
naturally creates dissenters ; hence the numerous 



80 



REPLY TO THE 



sects, in all climes and countries, at the present 
day. 

We could wish that M. de Custine had spoken 
with more moderation than he has done upon this 
subject. It would appear, however, that the 
"suaviter in modo" has not formed a part of 
his classical education. We could have wished 
that he had avoided that warmth of expression, 
which has its origin less from the heart than the 
heady and that he had mixed up less Catholicism 
in a matter in which Catholicism has nothing to 
do with it. In the interests of catholics, it is 
imprudent to represent their existence as alto- 
gether incompatible with schismatical or protestant 
power, and everywhere, and under all circum- 
stances, to reproach that creed as an instrument 
of proselytism and insurrection. 

Where a cry is raised against intolerance, it 
behoves one to appear the contrary ;* and not (as 

* M. de Custine is very perverse in respect to tole- 
rance. That which we admit in Islamism, appears to 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 81 

with the author) proclaim the Emperor of Russia 
as a species of Antichrist on earth, under the 
assumption, that he is the greatest enemy to 
Christianity ; nor is it right to exclaim against our 
national church establishments, including the 
Gallican, nor to exalt so highly the supremacy of 
the Pope : 

" What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba ?" 

Nor is it wise so often to proclaim that if, in the 
course of fifty years, the whole of Europe does 
not become catholic, they will be buried in the 
darkness of Paganism. 

These expressions should not be so often re- 
peated, because, like many others of the same 

him " more ostentatious than philosophical ; and for the 
people who submit to it, one humiliation the more. 
Instead of the Tartars praying within the sombre pre- 
cincts of their sanctuaries the mosques, raised to perpe- 
tuate the compassion and sympathy of their ancient 
tributaries," he adds, " I would rather pray in the secret 
of my own heart." In this wish we have no doubt our 
readers will unite with us in indulging him. 

E 5 



H2 



REPLY TO THE 



tendency, they have already been held forth by 
M. de Maistre, who even when in error is always 
original and piquant ; and, moreover, because the 
same ideas are paraphrased to surfeit, in the 
present day, by juvenile theologists, who eagerly 
devour the " sayings" of that grave sophist. 
There is, moreover, a difference between revived 
and original ideas ; and if we deny a people the 
qualities of originality, we must strive as much as 
possible to appear in the possession of them 
ourselves. 

M. de Custine (with much injustice and incon- 
sistency) further reproaches the Emperor. I am 
not such a coxcomb as herein to constitute myself 
the advocate of his majesty ; he has had to 
contend with more powerful adversaries, and with 
whom (Dieu Merci !) he is fully equal to cope. 
Besides, were I to appear so, M. de Custine 
would immediately denounce me as a paid 
courtier ! — perhaps might deem it worth his 
while to compare me to one of our poor grandees 
of former days, holding perforce the office of cup- 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 83 

bearer to the Mogul Khans, and like kirn, take it 
into my head respectfully to lick up the drops of 
milk, which now and then chanced to fall upon 
the mane of his imperial master's courser. I 
will not incur the risk of these painful compa- 
risons. And though I may be an " unfortunate 
serf," I hold to my independence. 

We must in justice to the author admit, that 
for one drop of sweetness imparted to the bitter 
cup which he presents to our " tyrant," he has a 
thousand such in store for us " slaves." M. de 
Custine sometimes goes so far, as to deign honor- 
ing our august master with the most distin- 
guished marks of approbation. One would feel 
disposed to believe from this — that he praises 
the shepherd, in order that he may with the 
greater facility pounce upon the innocent flock. 
Considering he is a man who "abominates courts 
and courtiers," this is somewhat remarkable, 
and comes 



" Like a bright and summer vision o'er us." 



84 REPLY TO THE 

Since he who defends the dead incurs no risk 
in being regarded as a flatterer, I cannot here 
avoid venturing a few words in reference to the 
very uncavalier manner in which he has repre- 
sented the character of Peter the Great. To hear 
him talk of this prince, one would imagine he was 
discoursing on Monsieur Pierre le Grand, an 
insignificant barber of Tours, whose adventures I 
have once upon a time read in some old volume. 
M. de Custine has more than once reminded us, 
while criticizing the works of our great reformers, 
of that philosopher who said, "had he been 
admitted into the presence of the Supreme Being 
on the eve of the creation, he would have offered 
more than one suggestion." " There should have 
existed," says the author, " such an era and such 
a nation, where great men should have been 
created at very little trouble or expense," or in 
other words, born with all the perfections of human 
genius, all of a lump — a sort of " lucus naturae." 
We will put the nation out of the question ; but 
with reference to the era or epoch, if we are not 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 85 

mistaken, there have existed men (though not 
exactly such prodigies as our author contemplated 
the manufacture of) of exalted worth, destined by 
the Creator to exercise, with their transcendent 
genius, a mighty influence in the great drama of 
human existence. To wit : the age of a Louis 
XIV, William III, Marlborough, Sobiesky, Eu- 
gene, de Villars, Charles XII, Walpole, together 
with many other splendid characters in French 
history, and the brilliant geniuses in the reign of 
Queen Anne. 

One of these rare examples, who was personally 
known to Peter, somewhere said of him : 

" Mirabar in tanto principe, 
Et notitiam rerum et judicium." 

Perhaps M. de Custine may have some regard 
for this approbational tribute — it was paid by the 
great Leibnitz. We may conceive that the witty 
traveller — (who to assist in the laborious delivery 
of his expressions has recourse to his own servant, 
the faithful Antonio, for advice) would form but 



86 



EEPLY TO THE 



an inadequate estimate of this quality inherent in 
such a man as Peter 1st, and who, under circum- 
stances of equal importance,, was entirely guided 
by the opinion of Antonio, as, for instance, when 
the Marquis was suffering from severe fever. 

Had he been merely Peter the " resolute," as 
our author would have him designated, even that 
would have been one good quality not commonly 
met with in princes ; had he been only that, 
however, or Peter the "restless," or, in other 
words, only half a genius, Sultan Mahmond 
would have been his equal, and the reforms 
created by both would have been followed with 
the same results. 

For our own part, however superficial may be 
our views, we cannot imagine that without genius, 
whatever power a man may possess, he cannot 
induce a whole nation to forswear its ancient 
prejudices, and conform to a new order of things; 
and even from the tomb, still to hold sway over 
the minds and feelings of a people. Whoever 
exercises such influence over the future conditions 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 87 

of a state, such idea must have originate! from 
inspiration, and a profound knowledge of human 
nature. 

If there exist, or have existed, so many men of 
mediocre genius, who, like Peter 1st, had combined 
the mind to conceive, with the physical force to 
execute, who unite patience with impetuosity, 
quick perception to an intuitive spirit of action, 
imagination with practical common sense — if 
there exist, or have existed, so many of these 
warriors, soldiers, and generals, who have never 
despaired, who have converted defeat into success, 
whose conquests were of a necessary and useful 
character, and who possessed the tact and skill to 
maintain them — let M. de Custine produce them, 
and we will be satisfied to withdraw our hero 
from his lofty granite pedestal. 

In this sentence, I am not only addressing 
M. de Custine ; I appeal to men of discernment, 
men of mind and education, and who possess the 
spirit to discern between genius and the result 
of fortuitous circumstance. We cannot be too 



88 REPLY TO THE 

guarded in forming our opinions of such men, 
who have become honored and exalted in the 
world's history. 

When we have passed our lives in agreeable 
travel, in pleasure and amusement, and we have 
performed no great deed, either "for good or 
evil," which might influence the destinies of the 
human race — when we confine ourselves to the 
collecting of a few isolated pages to add to the 
immense piles of manuscripts, destined perchance 
to be the idle sport of the " winds of ages" — it 
is necessary to think twice before we asperse with 
reproach, or vituperate with calumny, those war- 
riors whose colossal intellects have made the 
world tremble with terror and admiration. 

And if, perchance, during the career of such 
men, there exist a page of mystery, or some deed 
of blood — if some of their actions are above the 
comprehension of ordinary minds, or contrary to 
established principles, they must be attributed to 
the period, the customs, the education, and 
temperament of such men. We do not insult 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 89 

them with false accusations ; but we stand mute, 
with awe, as at the foot of a gigantic sphinx, and 
depart musing in silent thought, while endeavour- 
ing to decipher the enigma. 

The great error with which M. de Custine 
reproaches Peter 1st is, that of having brought us 
prematurely within the sphere of European 
action and habits. Herein it is not necessary to 
inquire whether the monarchy acted well or ill ; 
the most pertinent question to ask is, could he 
have done otherwise ? and this we are inclined to 
doubt. 

"You are nobody," very courteously observes 
the author, " and you, moreover, in all probability 
will remain so, in consequence of your being too 
anxious to become somebody." Instead of an 
active, we should have remained in a happy 
passive state of obscurity, in anticipation of 
a favorable opportunity presenting itself ; he 
however forgets to inform us when to look forward 
to this anticipated golden era. 

Supposing, upon this principle, that our neigh- 



90 REPLY TO THE 

bours were not disposed to wait, and that they 
had molested us in this our happy state of 
" single blessedness." We have at this present 
moment before us examples of this, in India and 
China — two nations situated at much greater 
distances from us than any European state. 

When we reflect on the astonishing development 
of resources, in war, industry, and commerce, 
evinced during the reign of Peter 1st, and which has 
since gradually increased, we must be blind not 
to perceive, that had we not sought to connect 
ourselves with Europe, Europe would have come 
to us. Modern civilization is making more rapid 
strides than even Peter contemplated in his march 
toward improvement. Refuse her admission, she 
knocks at your gates, and enters "nolens volens." 

To do the author justice, he does not altogether 
condemn us as good-for-nothing people, and pays 
us a slight eulogium upon our diplomacy in re- 
ference to European Turkey, and the obsolete 
governments of Asia. " To wage war with these 
old states," he says, "is a mission destined to 



MARQUIS DE CTJSTINE. 91 

us by providence/' and to this we ought to 
confine ourselves. Many thanks for the permis- 
sion. He, however, forgets two trifling obstacles, 
which perhaps, in the present age, may prevent 
the conquest of this " land of promise." 



92 



CHAPTER VI. 



In the first place, to carry on a successful war 
against the Turks, reduced as we should be to 
the employment of our irregular and barbarous 
forces of the provinces, is not the least evil to 
contend with. The Turks in illo tempore are not 
the Turks of the present day. They had then 
conquered the Morea from the Venetians, and 
made proud Austria tremble, at the very gates of 
the capital. At a later period, on the banks of 
the Pruth, they caused Peter himself much em- 
barrassment. Under these circumstances, without 



REPLY TO M. DE CUSTINE. 93 

obtaining auxiliary aid from the West, how shall 
we be in a situation to undertake our " destined 
mission of providence" against the East ? 

Moreover, it is very possible, and indeed proba- 
ble, that some European power might take it into 
its head to disturb us in our providential trip ! If 
Austria, the natural enemy of the Turks, did not 
adopt this caprice, Poland or Sweden might, or else 
France and England, already connected with the 
Ottoman Porte by mutual alliances. Under these 
circumstances, we should find ourselves opposed 
to all Europe — compelled to an open declaration 
of war with some, form alliances with others, and 
endeavour to exercise an influence over all, either 
by the force of arms or diplomatic policy — to 
place ourselves, as much as possible, on a footing 
with them, immediately to raise armies and fleets, 
a system of finance, military administration, and 
consequently engage officers, sailors, engineers, 
miners, architects, &c. from foreign countries ; 
or, in a word, open a channel in Russia for the 
civilization of the West. 



94 



REPLY TO THE 



As money forms the " sinews of war/' perhaps 
M. de Custine will inform us, (in the event of 
our being obliged to borrow ,) where we are to 
obtain it, and what amount we may require ? 
Will he deign to come forth from the seclusion 
of his study, in which his ideas (if he have any) 
are secreted, and with uplifted hand, point to 
the waters of the ocean their destined limits? 

It may be that he regards civilization, not 
exactly in the light of a hostess, whom we may 
refuse the possession of our domicile ; but who 
having placed but one foot on the threshold, 
enters and proclaims herself mistress ; possessing 
herself with the keys of the garrison, and without 
ceremony, unconditionally installs herself, with 
all her virtues and imperfections on her head. 

To descend, however, to plain matter of fact — 
Peter 1st did as he ought to have done, and if he 
did occasionally go too far in his reformation, it 
is that, like all other geniuses of his stamp, 
his good qualities were not without their defects. 
When he appeared in the scene of his triumphs, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



95 



lie had the aggrandizement and honor of Russia 
at heart, and he fulfilled his destiny. "Wrested 
from beneath the yoke of the Moguls — consti- 
tuted by the two Iwans into one indivisible 
union — saved by the Romanoffs from anarchy and 
dismemberment— already brought into relation 
with Europe by Michel, Alexis, Fedor and Sophia 
Alexievna herself — it devolved on Russia, under 
the alternative of remaining stationary and iso- 
lated, definitively to enter into the great family 
of European states. There is a truism in Shakes- 
peare, which experience has proved, and the 
neglect of which has been fatal to many : 

" There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune." 

Of this the immortal monarch profited ; he seized 
the happy moment. In the establishment of 
judicious and salutary reforms, it is equally dan- 
gerous to be too precipitate as to be dilatory. So 
long as their principle exists, civilization is to 
them a salutary and powerful auxiliary j but 



96 



REPLY TO THE 



without this animate principle, it becomes as a 
deadly poison, which, instead of effecting a cure, 
contributes to a fatal dissolution. 

That which the author has imposed upon us, 
Turkey has endeavoured to accomplish. She has 
placed herself in an isolated situation towards 
Europe; she has closed all her ports to com- 
merce, to the industry of the arts and sciences ; 
and has studiously shut herself up in her native 
originality. The advantage she derives from this 
we know, while she may console herself with the 
preservation of the plague and her national style 
of architecture. 

Extravagant in his opinions on Peter 1st, M. de 
Custine is not the less so in his judgments on the 
civilization which was with us the work of that 
great legislator. According to him this civiliza- 
tion is false. "We could wish that, once more 
awaking from his somnolency, he would define to 
us the true meaning of this expression. 

That our civilization is incomplete, and even 
superficial if he will, none among us will deny j 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 97 

but it does not follow, as a consequence, that it 
should be false. Civilization came among us, 
like the surge of the ocean, suddenly inundating 
all our social elevations, and it still exists on their 
surface ; but does it thence follow that these still 
waters should produce barrenness, and that in 
due time it may not penetrate the stratum be- 
neath ? There are those who will live to see it. 
Patience M. de Custine, and allow us time to 
breathe. 

From this inequality in the condition of society, 
arises the thousand motley, strange, and singular 
anomalies which present themselves to the eye of 
the traveller, without their being understood. 
With us the town and country mouse will be found 
united. By the side of a perfectly polished Rus- 
sian gentleman, you will find one who is only par- 
tially so, and who presents an odd compound of 
ignorance and knowledge, prejudice and experience, 
barbarity and urbanity. This may raise a smile, but 
Russians of good breeding are the last to observe 
or be inconvenienced by it. Strangers would be 



98 



REPLY TO THE 



wrong were they to notice or take offence at these 
follies or weaknesses common to human nature, 
in all climes and countries, or to look upon them 
as definite emblems of the national character. 
They are but casual examples, " incidents of 
travel/' to be met with, and which, while they 
amuse the observer, are destined to disappear in 
the flux and reflux of national manners. 

It is a much easier task to reform the ideas than 
the customs of a nation, while the latter, sooner 
or later, become subject to the action of the 
former. 

Has the author never happened to see a large 
glass three parts filled with water, and a small 
quantity of wine or spirits floating on the sur- 
face ? he will observe that the two liquids are not 
mixed. Notwithstanding, the red line, indicating 
where the wine remains in suspension, is not so 
clear and defined as to prevent some drops from 
gradually mixing with the general body of the 
water. Allegorically speaking, Russia is this 
vast cup. While the greater part of the new 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 99 

elements float on the surface of the old, and 
when the hand of Time shall have shaken this 
typical vase, the two elements shall become of the 
same substance and colour. 

It has been said times out of number, (and M. 
de Custine does but repeat that which has been 
written a hundred times before,) that our civili- 
zation is a failure, because it did not originate 
among ourselves ! but that we acquired it by 
adoption, hence founded entirely on the principle 
of imitation. He concludes, therefore, that we 
are from our very birth imitators, and for ever 
deprived of that intuitive or creative faculty. 
Where shall we find any civilization, ancient or 
modern, which has not had its origin upon this 
principle ? Did not the Greeks copy from the 
Egyptians ? — the Romans from the Greeks ? and 
so on to the present age ? Deprive French 
civilization of all that which it has acquired from 
these two nations of antiquity (commencing with 
the language) — deprive her of what she has suc- 
cessively acquired from the Spaniards, Italians, 

F % 



100 



REPLY TO THE 



Germans, and the English, and then see to what 
her nucleus of invention is reduced. 

I will not here reiterate all the reproaches of 
Anthony Vade, because jokes are not arguments ; 
still it is not the less true, that the French nei- 
ther invented algebra, gunpowder, fire-arms, the 
gamut, the compass, oil painting, engraving, 
printing, spectacles, the microscope, telescope, 
barometer, logarithms, nor the application of pen- 
dulums to clocks, nor the circulation of the 
blood,* nor the lightning conductor, nor the cotton 

* The following anecdote regarding this discovery 
we picked up in our travels. So far from Hervey being 
the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, in 1628, it 
has been proved, by many modern physicians, that Hip- 
pocrates knew it. A passage from Andrea Caesalpinus 
contains most clearly the doctrine of the circulation. 
James Leonieus states that P. Paulo discovered the cir- 
culation of the blood, and the valves of the veins, but 
was afraid to speak of it, from the Inquisition. He only 
communicated it to Acquapendente, who also dared not 
expose it from the same fear. A work on the subject 
was therefore given up to the republic of Venice, and it 
teas deposited in the library of St. Mark. Harvey was 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



101 



spinning machine, nor vaccination, nor the electric 
machine, nor the system of the universe, nor 
many other things, which it is needless to 
mention, and which almost brings us to the 
question, what did they invent ? 

Not having possessed the inventive faculty in 
these particulars, are we to blame them for having 
borrowed from their neighbours ? Again, at this 
very period we are by no means indebted to them 
for the invention or adoption of railroads, and 
while all the world is now occupied in their con- 
struction, is it necessary in order to avoid the 
reproach of invention, that one nation among us 
should await with an heroic patience, until it shall 
have discovered something of a still more original 
character ? They imitate, and are perfectly right 
in so doing, in order not to be behind other 
nations in the march of improvement. 

Leaving this point, as to what they have done, 

at the time at Padua, studying under Paulo and Acqua- 
pendente, and they communicated the secret to him, as 
well as to the English Ambassador of that time. — Editoe. 



102 REPLY TO THE 

and what all the rest of Europe has also, we have 
ourselves acted from the same impulse, with this 
exception, that what other nations have done 
gradually and in detail, we have adopted simul- 
taneously. Nor could it be otherwise, from our 
isolated position. We obtain every thing the 
last. We have been, therefore, even to the 
present time, imitators and borrowers, but does 
it follow, for this reason, that we should always 
be, in scecula sceculorum ? 

What is the mother of invention ? Pure ne- 
cessity. This necessity, it may be said, we have 
never felt, since, thanks to our elders, our wants 
were already satisfied. 

Russia is a young empire — for what is a 
century and a half in the existence of a nation ? 
In the sciences, literature, and the arts, she 
follows in the footsteps of all rising people, who 
at first require models, before they can arrive at 
true originality. Thus, gradually passing from 
example to example, though she has not acquired 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 103 

it herself, still by perseverance and research she 
hopes one day to be rewarded. 

The author awards us not the slightest degree 
of merit, for these our efforts to equal other 
nations ; but, on the contrary, to preserve us 
from imitation, and maintain the originality 
peculiar to ourselves, he would gladly immure us 
in the dark abyss of our former barbarism. Our 
buildings of stone displease him. According to 
his architectural survey, we should confine our- 
selves to the erection of wooden ones, as the only 
kind of habitation peculiar to our national style. 
He is moved even to compassion at seeing the 
birch trees in our gardens, giving precedence to 
the lime and oak ; he sighs when he beholds the 
patriarchal beards of our merchants cut off in the 
pride of their majesty by the razor of civilization. 
He has an abhorrence of our droschkis, which in 
order to be made the more commodious, have 
the misfortune to resemble in a manner the 
English tilbury. " A-propos of these impertinent 
droschkis," says he, " I both admire and regret 



104 



REPLY TO THE 



that which is national ; this air of nationality in 
societies may be regarded in the same light as 
the savage among civilized beings. Hothouses 
displease me. I prefer beholding the wilderness 
of the forest." Poetically speaking, so also do 
we ; and if it be purely as a matter of taste, we 
say amen to M. de (Dustiness predilections. 
I certainly prefer seeing the beauty and magnifi- 
cent wildness of the forest, to a field of kidney 
beans. But does it follow, therefore, that these 
forests must ever remain in their primitive state, 
and that all wild landscapes must for ever remain 
fallow ? Has society been established merely for 
the mere whims and caprices of the lovers of the 
picturesque? Were we to follow this peculiar 
system of our author, people would ever remain 
in their primitive state of barbarism, for fear of 
losing their originality of character. 

According to this theory, the first who in 
imitation of his neighbour, induces his fellow 
countrymen to use wheat as an article of food, 
instead of acorns, commits an unpardonable crime 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



105 



against their nationality. In like manner also, 
instead of constructing high roads, because they 
are of foreign origin, we are to maintain all our 
roads in their original state, with their layers and 
lumps of fir — because forsooth they are national. 
Was M. de Custine of this charitable opinion 
when he nearly broke his neck over one of 
them ?* 

By way of parenthesis, we may here state, that 
we were the inventors of wood paving in our 
streets, which the Marquis found so delightful 
and substantial, and which said invention the 
English have now borrowed from us, improving 
upon it, however, in the manner in which they 
improve upon everything else. Here for once we 
are original, and are imitated in proportion as we 

* In travelling from Geneva through Savoy on the 
road for Grenoble, I was shown a spot where General 
Moreau, from the badness of the road, fell from his horse 
and broke his arm or leg, I forget which. In a moment 
of irritation, after a few complimentary " sacrees," he im- 
mediately ordered the road to be put into better repair. — 

Editor. 



106 



REPLY TO THE 



imitate. This is the mutual routine of all people, 
although our author does not perceive that in 
proportion as we keep up with the progress of civili- 
zation, we shall gradually arrive at its perfection. 

We can imagine the reason why, viewing the 
subject in this light, the author should be dis- 
pleased with St. Petersbourg, and in fact what he 
had said of the creator applies equally to the 
creature. He has found this creation of Peter 1st 
far beneath what he was led to expect from his 
reputation. He pardons him in nothing. It is 
a city without character or style, the architecture 
of which is in opposite extremes, the houses 
(compared to those which children erect with 
cards) are devoid of style, splendour or taste, and 
scarcely worth a " coup de poing." He goes so 
far in his angry expressions in reference to these 
clumsy imitations, that he has very cleverly taken 
as national, two unfortunate granite sphinxes 
brought by sea from Egypt, and which are copies 
from the antique, similar to the obelisk from 
Luxor. 



marquis ^de custine. 107 

In order to break the monotony of a level 
country, to penetrate the mists of a polar sky, 
the buildings should have been in vertical lines, 
and of a bolder construction. In saying which, 
M. de Custine is, however, struck with the ap- 
pearance and number of our churches. With all 
these steeples, turrets, and metallic spires, which, 
as it were, ascend to the clouds — these belfreys 
with mailed roofs, scaled, chequered, spangled, 
striped, and resembling so many pointed caps, 
tiaras, bishops' mitres, &c. — the Marquis, in the 
exuberance of his fancy, is mightily pleased. 
" These are," says he, ff at least specimens of 
national architecture." After this, what more 
would he have? Since he finds our places of 
public worship to his taste, may we not be al- 
lowed to exercise a little of our own in the 
building of our domiciles ? In order to suit his 
fancy, is it necessary that all our dwellings should 
terminate in a spire ? or that each inhabitant of 
St. Petersbourg should be metamorphosed into 
a weathercock ? Even this, we fear, would not 



108 REPLY TO THE 

sufficiently satisfy him. "People delicate to a 
nicety are most unfortunate/' and M. de Custine 
seems of this unfortunate class — difficult to 
please. The sun is beautiful and brilliant, but 
he finds fault with it, because it prevents his 
seeing the stars also. 

" Grotesque apes/' exclaims the author with 
poetic fury, " demolishing Greek temples amid 
the marshes of Lapland, know ye not that these 
temples, which ye so barbarously transplanted, 
were in harmony with the sun and the sites 
which they formerly occupied — crowning with 
their radiant lines of beauty the shores of the 
Peloponnessus, and the Ionian promontories — 
but now to serve as bases to your peristyles ; you 
would have rocks and mountains — have you 
them V 3 

We confess that this terrible rhapsody came 
upon us like the blow of some giant pugilist; but 
recovering gradually from its effects, we quietly 
sat ourselves down, and seriously inquired whether 
that heathenish temple, the Madellaine of Paris, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 109 

stood upon a lofty mountain or not ? and whether 
the Temple of Commerce, commonly called the 
exchange, (for the use of the three per cent, 
gentlemen) whether that stood upon a perpen- 
dicular rock of twelve hundred feet high ? 

With regard to the statues of the gods and 
goddesses, in statu natures, freezing from cold in 
our gardens, or Asmodeus-like on the summit of 
our buildings, I agree with the author, that their 
unfortunate state of destitution must be anything 
but comfortable to them, thus exposed in our 
rigorous climate, and no more in unison with 
them than would be the exhibition of our kaftan 
or armiak on their devoted heads. But I would 
good humouredly ask, in the foggy atmosphere of 
London, how does the little god of Love manage 
to keep himself warm ? Also, in " modern 
Athens/' does not the little rogue's mother 
tremble in all her limbs, when thus exposed to 
the icy rains and chilling blasts of January? How 
would the " ladies' Achilles" in Hyde Park endure 
the smoky atmosphere of London, did he not put 



110 REPLY TO M. DE CUSTINE. 

a brazen face upon it ? Does M. de Custine find 
that Hercules with his lion's skin, or Ariadne in 
her gossamer tunic, present striking contrasts to 
the toilette of our beaux with their " chevelure 
merovingienne," or the elegant costumes issued 
from the magazine of Madame Palmyre ? Instead 
of standing in the mud, as in London or Paris, 
all our delicate Olympians are carefully preserved 
in snow, that great preservative of vegetation. 
Herein lies the difference, and after all I much 
doubt whether in one case they are more com- 
fortable than in the other. 



Ill 



CHAPTER VIL 



Severe upon our monuments, the author is 
equally so with our streets ; he cannot forgive us 
for their monotonous regularity. Hereupon he 
brings up "all of a row" those common-place 
localities, which the author of Notre Dame de 
Paris has brought into fashion in France. Like 
also Victor Hugo, our author must have winding 
streets, and those dark mysterious passages full 
of smoke, discord, and fog; with sinuosities, 
disagreeable both to the eye and imagination. 
I say nothing against the zig-zag when it arises 
from natural causes, without the interference of the 
architect, as is the case at Rouen and Nuremberg. 



118 



REPLY TO THE 



But in the name of common sense^ in a town like 
that of Petersbourg, which has been as it were 
founded a priori, who would look for winding 
streets ? Suppose the city of Paris was destroyed 
by fire, would they go systematically to work on 
the old model ? Are the new streets formed on 
the old site of the Place des Capucines irregular ? 
Besides his taste for the crooked, M. de Custine 
is a great admirer of the symbolical in everything. 
In an emergency he would find you one on the 
point of a needle. Thus in the straight con- 
struction of our streets, he fails not to perceive a 
symbol of despotism. It is an "infernal govern- 
ment which subjects men and monuments to the 
same law of military discipline." 

I have visited London, and seen the new 
improvements in Regent Street, Waterloo Place, 
Belgrave Square, Eaton Square, &c. &c. In 
them I have observed the same style and profu- 
sion, or, as M. de Custine has it, the same 
superfluity of pillars and columns as with us — 
the same symmetry, and the same love for straight 



MA.RQUIS DE CUSTINE. 113 

lines. Not having heard that the English 
possess a particular relish for despotism, I very 
much doubt the perfect accuracy of this ingenious 
symbolism of our author. 

From his continued harpings about our imita- 
tions, and his urging us to invent a national 
style of architecture, we have come to the conclu- 
sion of asking ourselves, what is the peculiar 
characteristic of the architecture of every other 
country individually ? Is it that style erroneously 
called gothic ? This style of architecture is no 
more French than it is English or German; it 
was, during the middle ages, the prevailing 
architecture of the whole world. It was borrowed 
from the Saracens after the crusades, and modified 
according to circumstances, precisely in the same 
manner in which we have adapted that which we 
borrowed from the Byzantines. 

We find the gothic at Strasbourg, at Cologne, 
and at Fribourg, as at London, York, and Canter- 
bury; as also at Paris, Rouen, Rheims. The most 
beautiful cathedrals in the north of France have 



114 



REPLY TO THE 



been built by English architects, at the period 
when the English were in possession of those 
provinces. As regards the modern style, (with 
the exception of Italy) where does there exist in 
all Europe a style which may with propriety be 
regarded as national ? The French, like our- 
selves, have taken their models from the Italians : 
for it is a well known fact, that Francis 1st invited 
to his court several of the most eminent Italian 
masters, while at a later period, 

" At Louis' call, Bernini came from Rome." 

In like manner with us, summoned by Elizabeth 
and Catherine, Rastrelli, Guaringhi and others, 
crossed the mountains from thence. In the present 
day, do we find that the architects of Paris have 
invented anything new or national? We see 
some repaired, or renewed in gothic, but we in 
vain look for anything of a novel character. 
That which occurs in Paris is the same everywhere 
else : we imitate much, but invent little. Before 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 115 

therefore he requires of us that which he is him- 
self deficient in, let Europe begin by imparting 
it to us. 

I doubt much whether we shall ever arrive at 
this desideratum (perfection) ; not only in archi- 
tecture, but in almost all the liberal arts, at the 
advanced period in which we live. Every age 
may create innovations to a certain point in the 
forms, and impart to their productions a certain 
degree of character or novel impression ; they 
are however at best but simple shades, and of 
trifling import. As to creating an original art, 
it would require nothing short of a complete revo- 
lution in the religion, language, and customs of a 
people. The last revolution of this nature has, 
I believe, long since given to Europe all the fruits 
which it was capable of imparting. Man rarely 
effects any new discovery except by instinct, 
undesignedly and unknowingly. It almost always 
happens that in imitating, he invents. It was in 
the full belief of our imitating the ancients, that 
the literature of the middle ages has approached 



116 



REPLY TO THE 



a new style. Dante believed lie imitated Virgil 
when he composed his beautiful original poem in 
imitation of the Provincials. Petrarch created 
the sonnet. In our own times, poets, painters, 
and architects are all in search of a new order of 
invention, aud it is precisely for this reason that I 
doubt of their success. If from their fruitless 
efforts something original should be gleaned, it 
will be exactly in that part of the production 
where they least expected to find it, and thus will 
it be with the Russians should they ever discover 
an invention. 

We have not yet arrived at the end of our 
troubles. Our unfortunate capital has received 
another broadside from the author. Not content 
with detesting it, such as it is, in order to please 
him, it should never have existed at all ! To his 
eyes, the creation of this Babylon of the North is 
a crime amounting to high treason against 
humanity. It was fit only as an asylum for those 
animal productions, toads and crapauds. Every- 
body is aware that the Dutch, like ourselves, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 117 

conquered their territory from the fish and the 
frogs — a conquest superior to any of Napoleon's. 
This conquest has ever been eulogized as a miracle 
of perseverance and self-will ; with us, however, 
it is looked upon as an act of presumptive pride 
and ridiculous vanity, and is moreover denounced 
(like the tower of Babel) as an " impious struggle 
of man against God and the elements P While 
the Dutch are allowed to exist under the continued 
terror of inundations, with regard to us, in the 
vocabulary of the pious Marquis, " our days are 
numbered." Hence, kind readers, some fine 
morning when discussing your "cotelette d'ag- 
neau" over the bottle, or while sipping your 
exquisite bohea and glancing over the " Journal 
des Debats," the Times, Herald, Morning Post, or 
Chronicle, be not surprised to find that, to use the 
eloquent language of our author, "the angry mass 
of waters will sweep before them the proud walls 
of our stately edifices and sacred churches, and 
like the baseless fabric in a vision, 

"Leave not a wreck behind!" 



118 REPLY TO THE 

Thus, like an exterminating angel, or rather 
mortal, M. de Custine already puts into his mouth 
the dread trump of our destruction. 

As comets occasionally appear in the heavens, 
doubtless some benevolent astronomer will pro- 
phesy the advent of one of these long-tailed 
messengers of evil, when our unfortunate little 
capital shall be swallowed up in the wrathful 
indignation of our author Meanwhile, our terra- 
queous sphere pursues its destined course, with 
the comfortable assurance that it has existed four 
thousand years. We cannot date from so long a 
period; but we can go so far back as 1703, which 
gives it an existence of a century and a half. In 
virtue of this fact, if it please our author, we will 
endeavour to live on a little longer, confiding 
in the just decrees and will of an all-seeing Pro- 
vidence. 

Should we be inundated, as has partially 
happened to us, it would certainly be a great 
misfortune to find not a house remaining; in 
which case, could not the Marquis invent a 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 119 

species of Noah's ark for us in anticipation ? In 
the event, however, of such a calamity befalling 
us, we will do as Pesth did when the Danube, not 
long since, got out of humour with it — we will do 
as was done at Catania and Lisbon, after the 
eruption and earthquake — what Guadaloupe has 
just done — what London did, after the conflagra- 
tion, which was " an evil, from which good might 
spring" — and what Hamburgh was lately doing, 
In this age of subscriptions, provided each person 
gives but half-a-crown, we shall find ample 
resources towards the re-construction of another, 
the more especially should the Marquis de 
Custine patronise us with his paternal commisera- 
tion. 

But "no/' cries our irascible enemy, roused to 
indignation at our loss, " to sweep you from the 
face of the earth amid the "roar of waters," ye 
frogified inhabitants of Ingria — to surrender up 
to the grizzy bear and wild elk, the theatre of 
your spurious civilization — it requires but this 
consummation — but one word from the Eternal, 



120 REPLY TO THE 

in whom and from whom ye have existence !" 
This is certainly a most paternal epithalamium, 
and evinces such a comprehensive idea of that 
beautiful and instructive lesson in scripture which 
inculcates " charity to all men." We, however, 
forgot that the religion of the Marquis is not ours 
— Dieu Merci ! 

We have a very exalted idea of the power of 
our monarchs ; and however capricious our author 
would make them appear, we doubt much whether 
it were possible for them (should it take their 
fancy) to destroy in one day or night this im- 
mense mass of social, commercial, and political 
interests, which have for so many years existed 
in Petersbourg. Peter 1st was a powerful mon- 
arch, and could he be recalled to life at the 
present day, that which he did fifty years ago, I 
would defy him now to undo ! 

It may one day happen, for I am no prophet, 
that when industry, agriculture, and population 
shall have made that sensible increase in Russia 
which we are led to anticipate— when roads and 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 121 

causeways shall have been every where estab- 
lished—when railroads shall have placed the 
interior of the country in more direct commu- 
nication with Europe — it may so happen, that then 
it may be deemed necessary to transplant the 
capital or seat of government to Moscow, Kiew, 
or elsewhere, in order to establish a nearer 
communication with the provinces, and bring the 
social ties of all in closer connexion with each 
other. 

If we go back to the days of Ruric, it will be 
found that since 862 the site of our capital has 
been changed five times, and that, according to 
circumstances or necessity, it has been alter- 
nately established at Nowogorod, Kiew, Wal- 
dimir, Moscow, and lastly St. Petersbourg. We 
cannot therefore say but that this latter place 
may also be subject to the same fate; but 
supposing this to be the case, does it therefore 
follow that its port and city are to be abandoned 
and become ruins? That circumstance (the 
change of capital) will in no wise prove that at 

G 



122 



REPLY TO THE 



one period, and under different circumstances, 
Peter the Great was wrong in including this spot 
within the arena of his vast laboratory of reform 
and civilization. 

When the Roman Empire extended itself and 
became populous, when its social and political 
wants were changed, her Emperors deemed it 
necessary to transplant the centre of government 
to Byzantium; this by no means implied that 
the first Caesar was wrong in residing at Rome. 

This little opuscule of mine cannot be called a 
" work hence I can only in a summary and 
casual manner, point out to the author some of 
his exaggerations or hyperboles. 

When his hypochondria and his unfortunate 
defect of vision disguise in him a latent degree 
of sentiment and sympathy in our behalf, he 
rivals Jeremiah himself, both in his foreboding 
visions, and terrible prophecies. Thus, after 
having chanted the "de profundis" over our 
capital, he, in anticipation, favors us with a 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 123 

funeral oration on our social order in general. 
From the very depths of our land, we hear the 
dismal echoes of his mysterious denunciations, 
which in perspective reveal to him the future, 
when Russia shall fall a prey to intestine revolu- 
tions — revolutions such as man hath never yet 
beheld ! The meaning of all this is evidently in 
interpretation of the "frightful cancer of slavery ^ 
under which we are now suffering. 

If M. de Custine will, however, do me the 
honor of taking the hint, which I lately threw out 
to him, and cast but a glance on byegone times 
in other countries, it would save his benevolent 
heart much tender solicitude for our safety. He 
will then perceive that the whole of Europe has, 
previous to this period in our history, passed 
through the ordeal of bondage without its being 
necessarily followed by revolutions. He knows 
well, or ought to know, that during the reign of 
Louis XVIth (who abolished its last vestiges) 
there still existed serfs in France, and that even- 
g 2 



124 REPLY TO THE 

tually the revolution arose from very different 
causes. If, then, our predecessors in civilization dis- 
engaged themselves from its trammels without em- 
barrassment, cannot we poor mortals follow in the 
same path, without being reduced to the necessity 
of more barbarous or destructive measures ? M. 
de Custine may be assured that our diplomatists 
occupy themselves with this project, much more 
so than he is probably aware of. 

The proof of this circumstance is, that our 
government itself is the first to set the example 
of their deliverance. When we speak of bondage 
in Russia, it must be remembered that, with the 
exception of Siberia, (the Botany Bay of Russia) 
neither Finland, nor the German and Polish 
provinces, nor Bessarabia and other provinces to 
the south, nor among our populous wandering 
tribes, are there serfs of any description ; so that 
out of a population of sixty millions of souls, there 
are comparatively few but what are virtually free. 
Were we suddenly to liberate these to-morrow, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



125 



we should expose thousands of unfortunate beings 
to certain starvation.* 

It requires a more logical mode of reasoning, 
in reference to these poor people. There are bans 
of propriety, founded on traditional and patri- 
archal habits and customs, which they obey from 
instinct, and in the free exercise of their will; 
and any sudden or inconsiderate subversion of 
this would, instead of producing good, be pro- 
ductive of the most unhappy consequences. 

Towards the end of the last century, Frederick 
had to contend against similar prejudices. He 
wished to inculcate more civilized doctrines among 
the Prussian moujiks, but which nearly ended in 
bringing about a revolution. 

* In the West India Colonies, when the negro eman- 
cipation took place suddenly in 1838 instead of 1840, had 
it not been for the charitable consideration of certain 
benevolent planters and proprietors of estates, thousands, 
both aged, invalided, decrepit, and helpless negroes must 
have starved from hunger and destitution ; for I regret to 
say, many managers of estates barbarously sent them 
forth with the consolation that, " government has made 
you free, now go and live how you may." 



126 



REPLY TO THE 



If I rightly remember, it is not fifty years 
since the potatoe was first introduced into 
France, while the introduction of that useful and 
nutritious article of food was not without its 
prejudices.* 

Any endeavour to force civilization upon these 
people, in opposition to their ancient prejudices 
and habits, would be to excite in them mistrustful 
feelings, and awake in them a spirit of opposition, 
which, when once kindled, might be fanned into 
general rebellion. 

Modern history is full of these instances — 
brought on sometimes by a dearth or famine in a 
certain province, the imposition of oppressive 
taxes, or a change in the value of the currency. 
Throughout Europe there have been insurrections 
of a still more serious character. That of the 

* It is a no less curious than well known fact, that the 
first individual who introduced the umbrella, in his 
peregrinations was followed and hooted at by all the 
ragamuffins aud little scamps in London. Vulgar 
prejudice and religious superstition are the curse of 
civilization. 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 127 

shepherds, "la Jacquerie/' the glove manufac- 
turers, and " canaille," during the reign of Henry 
IV, and in the time of Richelieu in France. 
While in Holland and England we might adduce 
twenty instances of a like character, such as those 
of Manchester, Newport, &c. ; lately the cele- 
brated Rebecca riots in Wales, and lastly the 
famous revolt of the peasantry in Germany. With 
the exception, perhaps, of those of Rebecca, where 
the existing evil we hope will be remedied, have 
any of these tumults among the people been 
productive of good ? 

Suppose, for argument sake, we admit M. de 
Custine's romantic notions as practicable, could 
he in the exuberance of his fertile imagination, 
afford us a spectacle, as to numbers and imminent 
danger, equal to the late coalition in England, or 
the armed revolt of the Lyonese ? Notwithstand- 
ing which, the links of society and the state are as 
firm as ever. We must, however, admit this 
melancholy truth, that in all states, of whatever 
denomination, there exists a discontented or 



128 



REPLY TO THE 



radical class, than which nothing can be more 
contemptible and corrupt than the chartists of the 
present day. And although it has not the power 
of creating alarm, it is not unfrequently trouble- 
some to the well-being of society, and which, 
though it cannot disorganize, it annoys, just as 
the restlessness of an insignificant fly disturbs the 
equanimity of temper in " J ohn Bull." 

These observations apply more to civilized 
nations than to those existing in a semi-barbarous 
state ; and I am the more particular on this 
point, because western Europe, being for the last 
fifty years accustomed to these revolutionary pro- 
ceedings, many able writers are disposed to ima- 
gine that the same disposition to insurrection must 
exist elsewhere, without taking into consideration 
the difference as regards the peculiar habits and 
character of the people. Accustomed to see the 
political body subject to copious bleedings, if I 
may so express myself, and the amputating knife 
used where the lancet would have sufficed, these 
gentlemen rather prematurely transform every 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 129 

question attended with some difficulty into a 
matter of life and death, under the conviction 
that the Gordian knot can only be dissolved 
by the axe of the revolution. The logic of events, 
however, is never so crude as that arising from 
the propounders of social metaphysics, while that 
which in politics appears probable to happen, 
affords no reason to suppose that from necessity 
it should so. Absolute, I was about to say 
narrow minds, are too apt to set down as a fact, 
that which is only on the probable eve of accom- 
plishment. The famous tower of Pisa has been 
for a long time, to all appearances, on the point 
of falling; it, however, there stands as firm as 
ever, and may so for ages. 

We would, therefore, in a paternal manner, 
counsel M. de Custine to quiet his susceptible 
mind and charitable fears with regard to what 
may happen to us. From the same motives, we 
could wish he would avoid those anxious fore- 
bodings with regard to our designs of invasion, 
which may indirectly serve to inspire the good 
g 5 



130 



REPLY TO THE 



Parisians with no small degree of terror and 
alarm; respecting their future tranquillity. For, as 
I have before remarked, in reference to his anti- 
theses, he makes the extraordinary assertion, that 
while on the one side he condemns us to irre- 
trievable ruin, he on the other represents us 
powerful enough to exhibit once more to the 
world, the spectacle of one of those great inva- 
sions, which, according to his Jeremiad, shall 
" descend from the pole under the guidance of 
providence," in order to cool the feverish 

" blood 

That like the lava's flood" 

flows in the veins of those inhabiting more 
southern regions, and who are suffering under 
the two-fold influence of the stars, and the most 
ungoverned passions. 

From a prima facia view, one would imagine 
that the one supposition annulled the other. 
M. de Custine's imagination, however, may be 
compared to nature, fond of the diversity of con- 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 131 

trasts. We would willingly leave him to reconcile 
himself to these reflections, in his own peculiar 
way, were he not in this case, as in many others, 
the faithful echo to his own creations. 

In Russia, it amuses us not a little to hear 
these ideas of invasion — this emigration from the 
North — believed and looked upon in so serious a 
light in Europe, and this not only among the 
humbler classes, but also among those whom we 
considered as possessing a higher degree of 
discernment. It sometimes unfortunately hap- 
pens with the most accomplished minds as with a 
musical instrument, all is in harmony, with the 
exception of one note — you will be performing a 
beautiful symphony upon it, when all at once 
comes the discordant sound, and you are sur- 
prised and disappointed at having unconsciously 
stumbled upon so unmelodious a response to your 
feelings. Since this singular whim, or idea, has 
got possession of more than one wise head, we 
may as well say a word or two upon the subject. 

Is it to be supposed for a moment that sixty 



132 



REPLY 10 THE 



millions of people, having towns inhabited by 
500, 300, 80, or 30,000 souls, possessing ports, 
territory in cultivation, habitations, churches, ma- 
nufactories, and mines, a large external and 
internal commerce, independent of its national 
habits and patriotic associations — with all these 
appliances of a civilization rooted to the soil, is 
it likely that such a multitude or nation, at the 
mere nod or pleasure of its ruler, should simul- 
taneously desert their homes and country already 
endeared to them, (if by no other recollections than 
those of Moscow) to go forth like the wandering 
tribes whom we read of as having formerly inun- 
dated the Roman empire ? and que /aire ? If, 
notwithstanding the invention of gunpowder, and 
the powers of the modern genius of warfare, it 
were possible for such wandering hordes again to 
appear in force — are you not aware that Russia, 
instead of opening to them a passage into the 
heart of Europe, would be the very first to 
oppose a firm and impenetrable barrier to their 
invasions ? Is she not now as a formidable and 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 133 

defensive wall against the advance of the Asiatics 
into Europe ? And if she have any " destined 
mission of Providence/' is it not to be hoped she 
will fulfil that mission, in imparting to those 
barbarous wandering tribes, the light of civiliza- 
tion — instil into them a new order of existence — 
and transform their tents and huts into comfort- 
able dwellings. 

If you go back into history, you will find that 
in the thirteenth century, it was Russia who, to 
her serious cost, saved Europe from the hostile 
and formidable invasions of the dark warriors of 
Asia. For had not the sons of the celebrated 
Tchingis Khan been opposed by us, and during 
more than two centuries our blood lavishly flowed 
in resisting their advance, who will deny but that 
they might have overrun Europe, flushed with 
the successful triumphs of their myriads of fanatic 
followers ? Already their quiveriug lances glis- 
tened in the sun around your towers, and so great 
was the terror evinced by their approach, so 



134 



REPLY TO THE 



fearful ; so terrible was the remembrance of the 
presence of their predecessors, the devasting host 
of Huns in Europe, that in Germany, and even in 
France, the church ordered a general and solemn 
fast, and public prayers were offered up for the 
preservation of the people. 

Let it not be said that the valor of the chris- 
tian knights would have sufficed to repel these 
attacks, had they been followed up with more 
energy. The bravery of the German knights 
was foiled in Poland, in Bohemia, and in Silesia, 
when opposed only to simple hordes, or advanced 
guards as it were, detached from the general body 
of invaders. In like manner, the flower of French 
chivalry was defeated in Syria, by a people whose 
defeat and dispersion afforded a mere pastime 
to their conquerors ; again at Nicopolis, against 
that same Bajazet, who, although conqueror of 
the christians, was subsequently himself defeated 
by the arms of a more powerful Mogul conqueror. 
If, then, Europe has escaped from such formidable 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



135 



adversaries, we may consider that she is indebted 
to us for her salvation.* Russia had, during a 
period of 220 years, devoted herself as a sacrifice 
in defence of the other christian nations of Europe, 
at the altar of the barbarians of the East. 

* I hazard this consideration as a probability, and 
wishing it to be understood as such, give the hypothesis 
for what it may be worth, having learnt from experience 
to be somewhat guarded in my belief in the generalities 
of history. If this point be disputed, as regards the past, 
my reasons or arguments in reference to the present or 
future I deem not the less worthy of notice. 



136 



CHAPTER VIII. 



"But," exclaim the erudite historians, "the 
inclemency of your region, the necessity of a 
sunnier clime, and a natural or innate tendency 
to approach the south," &c. If this tendency or 
inclination existed to so great a degree, perhaps 
those sapient philosophers will inform us, why it 
is that the Laplanders and Samoyedes do not 
descend from the pole to St. Petersbourg, and 
our other towns ? they would find them at least a 
little warmer than in their place of birth, where 
their only habitation is a hut. These people are, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 137 

however, like ourselves, attached to their homes 
and linked to the spot from traditional habits and 
customs. 

If some Russians among us take it into their 
heads to travel for pleasure or health, it is imme- 
diately presumed that we in general possess the 
wish to emigrate. These, moreover, form but a 
very trifling number out of an empire comprising 
sixty millions of people. And for one Russian 
whom you will meet at Baden, Paris, or Rome, 
you will meet ten Englishmen ; but does it follow 
from this, that the English in general are anxious 
to emigrate altogether from the three kingdoms ? 
Perhaps it may be said : " But the English are 
free, while you have but the shadow of freedom, 
and require permission from your imperial 
master ! What are your homes to you ? slaves 
have no country. 

Here again is one of those vague formulas 
which, notwithstanding his good sense and pro- 
found knowledge of mankind, Napoleon wrong- 
fully interpreted to the letter ; but for which his 



138 



REPLY TO THE 



great genius paid dearly. Were this really the 
case, if the ideas of, and the very word country, 
had not found an echo in the heart of every 
Russian, is there not a probability that in 1815, 
the soldiers from our armies would have deserted 
en masse to plant their cabbages in the land of 
" sunshine and liberty V The result proved, 
however, that but few, if any, remained in France 
and G-ermany, while, on the contrary, numbers of 
deserters from these two nations voluntarily 
remained in Russia and even in Siberia, after the 
war, and are there existing at their own free will 
and pleasure to this day. Scarcely a day passes, 
but that one of our nobles takes with him to 
Europe, servants who are attached to him even in 
their "bondage." To be free, it is only neces- 
sary for these people to abandon their masters 
and bid adieu to Russia. How few there are who 
take advantage of this, I appeal to the English 
nobility and gentry.* The Russians travelling 

* The same remark will in a measure apply to the 
slaves who accompanied their West India masters and 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



139 



annually in Europe are calculated by hundreds, 
while we reckon the foreigners domiciled among 
us by thousands. In fact, if our moujiks med- 
dled with metaphysics, they would draw a very 
different conclusion from this comparative table. 

In seeing so many English, German, French, 
and American merchants flocking to our shores, 
together with hosts of professors, teachers of 
languages, artists, mechanics, workmen, and 
others of every denomination, including con- 
fectioners, modistes, hair-dressers, cooks, hotel- 
keepers, and even comedians, independent of the 
numberless heathens, Suabians, Moravians, and 
Quakers, who travel south, even to the confines of 
Siberia, extending themselves over the wilds and 

families to Europe, and who, though free on their return, 
remained faithfully attached to them. This we may 
attribute to their having been born and bred, through 
several generations, patriarchally in the family as it were; 
for it was no uncommon circumstance in the Colonies, to 
behold the children of the negroes playing with those of 
the proprietor of the estate; hence arose a feeling of 
attachment from their very infancy. 



140 



REPLY TO THE 



colonizing the desert — in beholding these multi- 
tudes, not like so many birds of passage traversing 
Russia, but therein establishing themselves, and 
realizing fortunes as the fruits of their perse- 
verance and industry — to behold this phenomenon, 
(which it may be truly called) methinks our 
Platos in sheep's clothing would have a fine field 
wherein to exercise their philosophy ! They 
would then have much greater reason to appre- 
hend an invasion from Europeans, and raise a 
hearty laugh against those who imagine us so 
anxious to quit our own country for " the more 
genial south," and would become converts to 
the contrary principle, that an irresistible instinct 
impels the unfortunate population of the south 
to migrate towards the sunshine of the pole, and 
locate themselves among the fertile and inviting 
countries of the north. 

This vision we hope M. de Custine will one 
day perceive, in one of his " brown studies," or 
moments of hypochondriasis. To make the 
" amende honorable," however, when free from 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 141 

these sombre inquietudes, he can if he pleases be 
in a tolerable good humour, and we may even go 
so far as to say, start a joke ! There is a very 
simple solution to this/for he himself says: "I 
retain my humour for laughter, in spite of melan- 
choly and age." To this we have not the slightest 
objection whatever, as we ourselves peradventure 
follow in the same tract, from il penseroso to 
V allegro, or in plain English, from grave to gay. 

From among the numerous dark shadows 
which flit across almost every page of our author 
— -doubtless arising in a great measure from in- 
digestion, the following passage, like sunshine in 
a storm, affords us remarkable satisfaction and 
relief : — 

" E il mezzo V orrore, esce il delitto !" 

He is, however, extreme in all things, and 
possesses, as Byron said somewhere of Napoleon, 
"a spirit antithetically mixed;" while an etiolo- 
gist or naturalist would imagine our Marquis to 
have come from the outlandish regions of the 



142 REPLY TO THE 

Antiscii — a people who, from their situation, have 
noon and midnight at the same time. Moreover, 
with him a joke, when he does so " con amore," 
unfortunately descends * gradatim to the ridi- 
culous ; as, for instance, when he says, " Russia 
is like an athletic man expiring for want of 
breath \" " Peter the blind, when he made the 
conquest of the Baltic provinces, not having seen 
that the sea which he sought to throw open to 
our navigation was for the greater part of the 
year blocked up with ice." A-propos of this, we 
may be allowed to hazard the conjecture, from 
historical data, that on the present occasion Peter 
was only blind in one eye, and that this unfortu- 
nate inconvenience did not pass so wholly disre- 
garded by him as our author would have it 
believed. But what would he have had oar good 
monarch do ? Moliere has rightly observed, that 
we should avail ourselves the opportunity of gain 
where we can find it ; but he says nothing about 
" advantage" where none exists. Peter took what 
he could get, and unless he carried his conquests 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 145 

as far as Hambourg or Dantzic, (which would 
have been attended with no slight obstacle) he 
could give us no more. And may I ask, is not 
even owe solitary spot in the White Sea of advantage 
to us ? did he not at the same time manage to 
console us by his conquests on the Black Sea also ? 
Let us learn to make a virtue of necessity, and 
should we make the conquest of the whole world, 
and which (according to the Marquis) we shall not 
fail to accomplish, from the moment our "great 
invasion" shall commence, it will be then time 
for us to select ports, when we have leisure to 
look around us, and thereby repair the blind error 
of our indiscriminating monarch. In the mean- 
while, and for the want of a better, the gulf of 
Finland, blocked up as it is, fails not to afford us 
some agreeable pastime in summer, and of which, 
with all due humility and courtesy, we invite our 
knight errant to partake. 

It is from thence that we import our hides, our 
tallow, cloths, timber for building, our hemp, 
iron, our hogs' bristles, and other commodities, 



144 REPLY TO THE 

which added to the sum total for general exporta- 
tion, amounts to the trifling sum of from 300 to 
400 millions. At the same time, we here receive 
importations from foreign countries, the duties 
arising from which throw into the treasury of our 
customs the annual sum of about 80 millions. This 
statement I give after our own mode of calcula- 
tion, for our author, in speaking of our Baltic 
commerce, rather maliciously observes : "It is all 
laid down to the account or in the names of 
Russians." We are therefore under the necessity 
of informing him, that the foreign merchants, 
among whom we include those of his own country, 
established in St. Petersbourg, take these things 
more in the light of matters of fact than he him- 
self is disposed to do ; while his jests on this 
subject only serve to annoy and disgust them. 
Moreover these ingenious gentlemen very properly 
and shrewdly calculated, like brother Jonathan, 
that when such an opening to commerce existed, 
something at least might be gained therefrom. 
But all at once they are mischievously told, that 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 145 

we give them mere nominal payment, as a set off 
for what they had calculated on receiving in round 
numbers. The sarcasm or taunt, however, is 
here carried too far. Nobody likes to pass for a 
simpleton. This would be a " shocking joke" 
(were it true) say the practical English, who 
manage to do business with us annually to the 
tune of about 125 millions. 

Our author is again in error, and rather 
ludicrously so, in speaking of our navy, denounc- 
ing it as "useless," and describing it as at best 
but " mere painted hulks" floating on the waters, 
and invented solely as an agreeable pastime for 
the Emperor. We do not require this navy it is 
true, if we would confine ourselves to our natural 
limits ; but supposing others quit their limits, or 
seek to reconquer those natural boundaries which 
have now become ours — thanks to the caprices 
of your sovereigns ? Upon this sore subject our 
sailors evince no small degree of resentment 
towards the author. 

In listening to his arguments, these sons of 

H 



146 



REPLY TO THE 



the ocean, while smoking their pipes, have not 
unfrequently expressed themselves in no very- 
reverential terms towards him, and I found no 
little trouble in calming their irascible tempers. 
They, however, begged me politely to remind 
M. de Custine, that the creation of this navy 
(which act, by the bye, he makes out as another 
crime in Peter 1st) was not altogether useless 
to him, when, for instance, he burnt sundry 
Swedish vessels, took Helsingfors, Borgo, Abo, 
penetrated Sweden as far as Wasa, defeated the 
enemy's fleet at Hango Udde, and cleared the 
gulf of Bothnia, when he contemplated the 
conquest of Carelia, Ingria, Esthonia, Livonia, 
and Courland, and by those means rendered 
Peter sbourg secure from any attack. They, 
moreover, wish me to demonstrate to M. de 
Custine, that the capture of Azoff was not with- 
out its utility ; they even venture to say that 
without a navy, Catherine (I dare not call her 
c( great") would neither have conquered at 
Tchesme, nor would she have defended Peters- 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 147 

bourg by sea against Gustavus III, nor founded, 
and caused to be respected, that armed neutrality 
of the North, which was at one time by no means 
agreeable to France. 

M. de Custine may also remember, that at 
Navarino our navy was of some service, in 
winning for us our quantum of victory. As to 
the English, who according to him describe our 
vessels as agreeable "playthings," I remember 
about five years since, when we were far from 
being on so good terms with Great Britain 
as we are at present, the English were not so 
indifferent upon this point. Our little " toys" 
were anything but agreeable to the " Times," 
who every morning inquired, for what reason we 
had 27 sail of the line at Cronstad ? and wished 
to know whether it was our intention to take 
advantage of John Bull's being occupied elsewhere, 
in order that we might make a demonstration 
or attempt to destroy the shipping in their ports. 
These intelligent journalists, however, know full 
well that we had not the remotest idea of so 
h % 



148 



REPLY TO THE 



absurd a measure; it was merely one of those 
pasquinades or "quid nuncs" with which they 
are apt to amuse their readers at the expense of 
the suspected party, and which are forgotten in 
the ee on dits" of the following morning. 

Whether he meant seriously or not, certain it 
is that our "toys" never merited the sovereign 
contempt with which the Marquis de Custine 
treats them. In time of peace, ships of war are 
said to be comparatively useless, and this is one 
of those truisms which M. de la Palice has 
wittily demonstrated in one of his songs. True 
it is that they are a costly appendage to the 
state ; but if we would make ourselves respected 
at home, and we would wish to repose in safety, 
we must be satisfied to pay dearly for many 
things which occasionally appear of a useless or 
burdensome character. It is with fleets in time 
of peace, as with certain fortresses and fortifica- 
tions, which are raised and maintained at 
immense cost, in order to protect ourselves against 
casualties which in the end may never happen. 
The author compares our navy to an overgrown 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 149 

child. According to him, " the immense sacrifices 
made to so insignificant a purpose could only 
exist among a people blindly submitting to their 
destiny." Let this not trouble him however; 
he will find on a nearer observation, that there 
are other nations who as blindly submit to the 
" powers that be to wit, what are the fortifica- 
tions of Paris for ? 

The jests of the author, on the subject of 
industry and finance, are not less amusing than 
are his effusions of wit and humor on reviewing 
our commerce and marine. To enter into a full 
detail would be, peradventure, too tedious a task. 
Moreover, we have lately seen that M. de Custine 
cares very little about figures, while as to the 
industry, the political economy, the schools, and 
charitable institutions, he speaks of them quite in 
the style of a marquis of the " ancien regime m " 
that is, with a profound contempt, and apparently 
for no other purpose but to maintain nobility.* 

* "Ask others what I have seen of useful in these 
superb nurseries for officers, mothers of families, and go- 
vernesses— J shall not divulge." 



150 



REPLY TO THE 



Upon this subject we shall confine ourselves 
to one point, and shall feel obliged if this speci- 
men of the " ancien regime" will be pleased to 
read with a little more attention than he appears 
to have done, the last ukase, relative to the fixed 
value of the ruble. Doubtless, the very extraor- 
dinary conclusions to which he has come have 
ere this mightily amused our minister of finance. 

We are allowed to be merry when our mirth 
arises from generous feelings, and when its result 
is not productive of less agreeable consequences. 
Has M. de Custine well considered the con- 
sequences of his opinion, when seeking to explain 
symbolically, in his usual manner, the melancholy 
, character of our national music, which he again 
believes, according to custom, was introduced 
into Moscow from Byzantium ? He therein dis- 
covers a plaintive appeal against despotism, a 
sort of disguised protestation, and a token of 
conspiracy ! And this in the very heart of a 
government such as we possess. We must be led 
to infer from this, that we live (as was formerly 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 151 

the case in France) under an absolute monarchy, 
modified or softened down under the influence of 
song, or the fiddle, while the Emperor is perfectly 
aware of the remarkable ruse or circumstance 
which is to bring about a general revolution. 

M. de Custine expresses his surprise, and he 
has every reason to do so, that previous to him- 
self, no other person has ever thought of warning 
his imperial majesty of the extreme impropriety 
and danger of allowing us this innocent recrea- 
tion of music. Knowing, agreeably to his own 
acknowledgments, how great is his attachment to 
us, we must confess we were not a little surprised 
to find him, above all others, voluntarily under- 
taking so unenviable a task. Does he forget that in 
our country how jealous and suspicion is authority ? 
Suppose it were so, that the Emperor Nicholas, 
by an imperial ukase to-morrow, was to prohibit, 
not only the performance of our melancholy airs, 
but those of a much more dangerous tendency, 
" which by their sudden and stirring bursts of 
passion" (like the celebrated Ranc des Vaches of 



152 



REPLY TO THE 



the Swiss) act upon the heart and mind of the 
patriot — in such case, what would become of our 
good moujiks, compelled to hang up their guzlis 
and balalaikas ? — those poor devils, who whilom 
amused themselves in song while toiling with 
their hatchet in the forest, or digesting their 
pickled cabbage ? Methinks I now behold them 
at the feet of our author, and in the accents of 
despair, imploring him " that forasmuch as they 
have no pleasures, but mere consolations," he 
would in his infinite benevolence allow them, at 
least, the enjoyment of this their only one. 

I begin to perceive that I am unwillingly drawn 
into a somewhat agreeable or jocose conversation 
with M. de Custine — too much so perhaps. It not 
unfrequently happens, that while conversing with 
persons who really possess a quantum of wit and 
humour, we forget the flying hours. I had, 
however, many more observations to make to my 
agreeable companion, in return for the very 
liberal and undisguised expression of his senti- 
ments towards us ; but there are limits to all 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 153 

things, and here we must stop, even at the risk 
of appearing ungrateful. I shall, therefore, con- 
clude this rhapsody, and having hitherto respect- 
fully confined myself to a representation of 
objections and suggestions, I shall wind up my 
philippic to the author, with the offer of one word 
of advice, notwithstanding my extreme repugnance 
to the term. 



154 



CHAPTER IX. 



My advice is, that, with a somewhat severe 
scrutiny, he should critically revise his anecdotes 
and cotemporaneous facts, whence he draws his 
recherche and fine moralities. I must inform 
him that there are two classes of people existing 
in Russia, whom every stranger, if he be prudent, 
will do well to observe and listen to with extreme 
caution; but to whose "ipsedixits" M. de Custine 
has lent too willing an ear. 

The first class is that of the proprietors and 
their ladies, moving in a respectable sphere of 
society, both well born and well educated; but 
who, in their false position, with regard to the 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 155 

higher classes, whom they occasionally approach, 
but with whom they do not mix, are not unfre- 
quently and unintentionally led to draw their 
hasty conclusions of that class, in which more 
than one fool, from ridiculous vanity and imperti- 
nent indelicacy, may have made them sensible of 
their inferiority of station. 

The second class are those who are mystifiers 
by profession, and who, I regret to say, abound 
among us. Being for a long time accustomed to 
the relation of ideal stories respecting us, many 
Russians have taken it into their heads to relate 
them in their turn to travellers, more particularly 
to those whom they imagine are about to "write 
a book." Acting in accordance with the homeo- 
pathist, in virtue of the famous principle similia 
similibus curantur, they wilfully exaggerate all 
sorts of absurdities, in the hopes that so many 
trifles or fooleries, hawked about from mouth to 
mouth in foreign countries, by these literary 
pilgrims, will render Europe jealous or mistrustful 
towards us. 



156 



REPLY TO THE 



I fear, however, that they but deceive them- 
selves, as to the efficacy of this mode of treatment, 
and that they do not base themselves sufficiently 
on the incurable credulity of the cockneys of our 
days. Be this as it may, if we are to believe 
M. de Custine, that he was before-hand prepared 
to mistrust the subtlety, or plots, of these gentle- 
men, how comes it, then, that he should eventually 
have allowed them so frequently to take advantage 
of his innocent credulity ? Among other cases, 
at Moscow for instance, he sees a somewhat 
indifferent specimen of a prince — a sort of Don 
Juan of the north — who appears to have emu- 
lated the accomplished qualities of his gay 
prototype. To confine myself to one or two 
examples out of a score, in which the author has 
unwillingly fallen into the snare, for want of a little 
discrimination as to the source whence he derived 
his information, I will in the first place en passant 
point out the absurd atrocities mixed up in his 
romance of ThelenefF, to which I have alluded, 
and then pass on to the history of the Princess 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 



157 



Troubetzkoy,* as also to that of the Count Laval, 
in which the whole of the facts, as well as the 
names are perverted. 

If M. de Custine had been made acquainted 
with the whole of the particulars, in reference to 
the family of the princess, how happens it that he 
should have remained ignorant of the most im- 
portant of all ? namely, that she is the daughter 
of that very same Count de Laval — that good and 
venerable old man — who was the object of his 

* God forbid that I should seek to conceal the truth of 
a real misfortune, which divested of all exaggeration 
remains sufficiently deplorable in itself. The surest 
means, however, of divesting such a calamity of the com- 
passion awoke in us from its narration — is wilfully to 
exaggerate the evil, by false representations, and com- 
ments of a still grosser and even libellous character. 
The proof that there still exists a hope of pardon to the 
conspirators of the 14th Dec. is, that but very recently, 
the daughter of one of the most criminal among them, 
belonging to the Mouraveiff family, who was born in exile 
after the condemnation of the father, and who according 
to the strict letter of the decree, should forfeit all claim 
or title to nobility, has by the express command and at the 
expense of the Emperor, been admitted into the institute 
for the daughters of nobles. 



158 REPLY TO THE 

sarcastic raillery, under the disguised name of 
Lovel? We must take it for granted, that he 
was ignorant of this trifling incident, for it is 
scarcely probable that, feeling as he did so warm 
an interest for the daughter, he should, almost in 
the same breath, cast opprobrium and ridicule on 
the father ! 

" Si Peau d'Ane nretoit conte, 
Ty prendrais un plaisir extreme." 

Of this sort of pleasure, M. de Custine seems 
to have an abundant supply — witness the stories 
which they dole forth to him about the "dungeons 
of deatlr" in the fortress, which historiettes, by 
the bye, reminds one very much of those highly 
interesting little anecdotes which were current 
among the Trench people in 1789, respecting the 
dark dismal horrors of the Bastile ;* but where, 

* A very interesting work has lately appeared in 
monthly parts, entitled " Chronicles of the Bastile," full of 
incidents and adventure, as connected with that fortress, 
during the period of the " darker ages." 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 159 

as is well known, when that prison was opened, 
instead of discovering "myriads of victims to 
despotism/' they found but half-a-dozen solitary 
beings therein confined for debt and forgery. 
Again, mark his revolting story about the poor 
unfortunate nuns of Moscow, partaking of a 
pitiful fare with their gallants, within the walls of 
their monastery, and (taking for a precedent the 
infamous orgies of the tour de Nesle) murdering 
them before the dawn, in order to conceal their 
criminality ! And, lastly, his pretended anecdote 
of the late grand duke Constantine, coolly thrust- 
ing his sword into the foot of a general officer on 
parade, who, without word or token, quietly 
submitted to this experiment of the prince in 
anima vili, in order to demonstrate to foreigners 
the high state of respect and efficient discipline in 
the Russian army ! However agreeable these anec- 
dotes may appear to the Marquis, in the shape 
of nursery tales to frighten naughty little chil- 
dren, we suspect much that he is not very deeply 
read in Russian history, and that he has dished 



REPLY TO THE 



up these little trifles with the same gout (and 
may be a due quantum of scandal, to render them 
the more piquant) as a cooking editor or journal- 
ist would cater for his readers. We are led to this 
induction from the circumstance that this "heroic" 
instance of discipline, with trifling alterations, 
derives its origin from our chronicles, among the 
imperial archives, and has reference to "Iwan 
the Terrible." Notwithstanding, however, the 
little progress in our manners since the days of 
Iwan, we venture to assure the author, that our 
princes of the present day have ceased to exercise 
such physical and experimental modes of proving 
the respect, temper, or discipline of our officers. 

Is it possible to conceive that so critical an 
observer of human nature, and one so distinguished 
as the Marquis, should believe all these things ? 
that he should have so little regard to the 
credulity of his readers, as not only to repeat 
such idle tales, but 



" F faith to print them 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 161 

In what localities, or from what source, he can 
have obtained them, we are at a loss to conceive ! 

M. de Custine politely informs us that he has 
had little or no intercourse with our nobility — 
that, on the contrary, he carefully abstained from, 
or avoided their "hypocritical civilities/' and 
that he with becoming dignity held himself aloof 
from their tables and saloons — having so long 
lived in the country, "en parlementaire," and 
being " proof" against these temptations. 

Another inducement towards this rigid purpose 
of our author arose doubtless from a fear of the 
seductive effects consequent on an invitation to a 
good dinner, against which even the greatest men 
are not exempt. Or it may be, that confining 
himself to the seclusion of a humble fare, at 
home, in a tete-a-tete with his faithful Antonio, 
he would preserve that equanimity of temper and 
self-possession, equally becoming to the modern 
Roman as the philosophic traveller ; thereby also 
enabling him to pronounce judgment on the 
Russians, with the stoical impartiality of a Brutus. 



162 



REPLY TO THE 



For this effect, if such were his sentiments, we 
cannot sufficiently commend the Marquis, as in 
this peculiarity he forcibly reminds us of a certain 
class of the magistracy in all climes and countries. 
It is possible, however, our author may have 
imagined, that the conversation of a "table 
d'hote," and the variety of information he there 
acquired between the courses, soup, fish, flesh, 
and cheese — it may be presumed that, in his 
opinion, the narration does not always bear the 
stamp or character of authenticity. 

I repeat what I have previously stated with 
some degree of sincerity, that we are ready and 
willing to profit by his instruction, and although 
he admonishes us in rather a dogmatical and 
rude manner, we must perforce " grin and bear/' 

It unfortunately sometimes happens, that when 
we are disposed to receive instruction as dutiful 
pupils, and are in the best of humours with our 
preceptor, " surgit aliquid amari," he instils a 
bitter into our sweets. 

With what faith can his wisdom inspire us, 



MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. 163 

when we behold our logician descending from his 
high estate, to contemptible puerilities, such as 
the merest school-boy would be ashamed to 
confess to ? This adds little to his reputation, 
less to his credit ; and for his sake, as well as for 
our own, we deem ourselves, with all due humi- 
lity, under the necessity of submitting to his 
serious consideration this candid and honest 
opinion. 

I would willingly take upon myself the task of 
pointing out to him all his misconceptions and 
voluminous errors, to say nothing of his stories. 
It would be a troublesome and useless task to 
attempt a refutation of the " Arabian Nights' 
Entertainments/'' With regard to his errors, 
they occupy the space of four volumes. To 
attempt an exposition of those errors would 
require four volumes, and four more in royal 
octavo for the refutation of them ; this would 
make eight, which is rather too laborious an 
occupation for myself, who, like every one else in 
Russia, has to make his way in the world, and 



164 REPLY TO M. DE CUSTINE. 

who, according to M. de Custine, studies night 
and day that great philosophical work, entitled 
" The means of success f and who, consequently, 
having such views in perspective, has hardly time 
to read, much less write, on the works of others. 
M. de Custine may therefore congratulate and 
consider himself highly nattered by the compli- 
ment which we have paid him, while we 
respectfully take our leave of him with the 
following quotation from Horace, which we are 
sure he will, with the generality of our readers, 
fully appreciate : — 

" Lectorem delectando, pariterque movendo." 



FINIS. 



T. C. NEWBY, PRINTER, MORTIMER STREET, LONDON. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 

TALES OF THE CYCLASES, &c. 

SECOND EDITION. 



©ritual 3tearfes. 

" There are some very pleasing and well written poems 
in this little volume ; the subject is highly interesting, 
being in general anecdotes of the heroes and heroines 
who fought and fell during the war for freedom, in the 
land that was freedom's cradle." — New Monthly Magazine. 

" Mr. Bradfield has wandered over Greece, and with a 
young spirit deeply imbued with the traditions and pre- 
sent circumstances of that country, he has again endea- 
voured to pour out his impressions in song. Compositions 
so recommended would disarm critical exactness ; and we 
can safely say, that they do not discredit the author; but 
on the contrary, link him both with Greece and poetry in 
a genial manner." — Literary Gazette. 

" It is worth while running the gauntlet through a 
score of fiddle-faddle works to reach this at last. There 
is some good poetry in it." — Athencewn. 

" These poetical tales are dedicated with permission to 
King Leopold, and they enjoy the advantage of being 
written on the spot, where their scenes are laid, and to 
which their incidents are adapted. They are also the 
productions of an enthusiast in the cause of Greek liberty, 
and relate almost exclusively to acts more or less con- 
nected with the recent and noble achievements of that 
liberty, and in some of which acts the writer himself has 
taken a voluntary part." — Court Journal. 

" The author evinces considerable ease and fluency of 
versification, quickness of perception, and lightness of 
touch. The poems contain much sweetness, are full of 
promise, while the writer's capabilities are of no mean 
order." — La Belle Assemblee. 



ii 



K The present work is of a lyric cast, and consists for 
the most part of poetical illustrations of Grecian man- 
ners and incidents. The rythm is good and versification 
easy, while occasional flights of a higher kind evince the 
author's possession of real poetic talent. The lines on 
Sappho, and those on Lord Byron's death, especially are 
far above the general." — Satirist. 

" The poems contained in this little volume are pleasing 
lyrical effusions, and prove their author to be possessed 
of considerable talent and even genius." — Atlas. 

" This is a volume of very elegant poetry ; the similes 
are cleverly wrought, the images are natural and beauti- 
ful, and the versification is correct." — Sunday Times. 

"The author sings of Grecian heroism and Turkish 
cruelty in strains that would do honor to the most 
zealous champion of the Greek cause. His descriptions 
of battles between the Greeks and Turks are extremely 
spirited, and some passages display pathetic powers of a 
high character. There is in fact a great deal of good 
poetry in this little volume." — Weekly Times. 

" We have here a variety of highly interesting and 
well-written poems relating to Greece, with notes which 
abound with historical anecdotes of the undaunted hero- 
ism of that brave people in their struggle for liberty. 
The author, in the little volume now under our con- 
sideration, has been most happy in his delineation of 
the incidents attendant on their arduous warfare." — 



Examiner. 




